It’s not often conservatories become about life and death. But, last month, an Ultraframe conservatory installed by Realistic Home Improvements in Exeter performed exceptionally when hit by a 600kg silage bale. The homeowners were both in their conservatory at the time, but thankfully no one was hurt.
The view from Mr & Mrs Bushell’s conservatory looks up a sloping garden towards a farmer’s field, where one evening a baler was wrapping in black plastic the last of the farmer’s silage. When one of the silage bales rolled down the field, it smashed through the hedge and fencing around the homeowners’ garden and landed on top of their conservatory. The two glazed roof panels smashed, raining down safety glass onto the couple, but the frame around the conservatory remained intact, thereby preventing the bale from hitting the couple.
“The conservatory style is a lean-to, on bolster beams,” explained Ryan Barrett, Managing Director at Realistic Home Improvements. “The ring beam was twisted but the bolster beams remained intact. If it had been a polycarbonate conservatory without the reinforced roof, it could have been a lot worse.”
The homeowners are grateful for the high performance of their Ultraframe conservatory. “Thank goodness we made the choice of conservatory that we did,” commented Mrs Bushell. “If we hadn’t selected such a good quality, solid conservatory, we’d probably be dead now. When I asked my husband how he wanted to repair the damage from the silage bale, he told me simply, ‘I want the exact same conservatory as the one which just saved my life.”
The team at Realistic Home Improvements, based across Devon and Cornwall, are now in the process of installing a new Ultraframe conservatory for Mr & Mrs Bushell. “This conservatory was one of the first we installed after becoming an Ultra Installer in 2012,” explained Ryan. “I wanted to become an approved installer because I like to do things by the book – it’s peace of mind for me and for the homeowner. This type of situation is obviously rare, but when things like this happen, it’s so good to know we’ve installed the best for our customers.”
