Garden orientation and the sun....

The_JinJ

Hi

I'm in the process of looking at houses and may well be putting in an offer on one very soon....only thing bugging me is the rear garden. I have attached a picture with the plot marked in red. The rear garden faces NE however to the east is pretty clear of other properties with only a small garage. The garden is also quite long, maybe 30+ft - how much sun do you reckon the garden would catch during the day. I think morning and afternoon would be ok and maybe to the bottom of the garden in the evening.
Any thoughts appreciated

pimento

Our garden faces north east. The patio is at the other end to the house and gets the sun all day. Even the house gets the sun in the mornings in the summer.

Our east facing side is free of neighbours and consequently our kitchen (at the back) is very bright.

The front of the house is very bright and warm because it faces south west and the estate agents pictures looked fan-dabby-dozee.

BornAtTheRightTime

It looks like that photo was taken mid-morning in late Spring (sun is in the SE, shortish shadows, green lawns and trees have lots of leaves) and you get plenty of sun then. I wouldn't expect much sun on a Winter afternoon due to shadowing from the left-hand neighbour's house and sheds but otherwise it should be surprisingly sunny for a NE facing garden.

The_JinJ

Thanks for the comments.
I think it will get more sun than some NE facing gardens in the summer months but how can I check lol
The rear has large windows and a patio door - the kitchen area seemed bright enough. It is summer that I mainly worry about, winter is lacking in sun anyway.....

Running_Horse

I love the cool summer shade we get from our house with NE facing garden. For anyone who likes looking like a roast walnut there is a patio area further down, but we never use it. Quality of house and neighbourhood were more important to us.

ash28

We currently have south facing back garden and obviously a north facing front.

All of our living accommodation is on the back of the house - along the back of the house we have large patio doors and 2 large windows, which are our living room and dining room - in the winter it's great as we get any sun that is going and the rooms are warmed by the sun. However hot weather is awful - it gets like a greenhouse - unbearably hot - we close the curtains to try and keep it a bit cooler.

Our halll at the front is large with a lot of glass and it gets the sun in the morning - in the summer a much more pleasant place to be if the weather is hot.

The patio runs along the back of the house and it can be like sitting in Spain - it can get so hot - we have a small area at the bottom of the garden next to tree where we often sit if it's too hot. The table and chairs get hot - if you don't put cushions on the chairs you can burn your legs and you can burn you arms on the table, but they are dark grey - stupid us, they should have been white.

The house prior to this had a north facing garden and the patio was at the bottom of the back garden which got a lot of sun - the back of the house didn't. The living room was on the front of house and used to get really hot.

We are moving soon and the new house has north(ish) facing back garden and to be honest I'm quite looking forward to it - all of the living areas are across the back of the house just like this one - and all but one of the bedroom are across the back, just like this one - I'm looking forward to being able to keep a little cooler in the summer months.

I know it will not be as nice in the winter, but overall I think the comfort in the summer will be the best - as for lack of light our hall which is north facing has large windows and isn't particularly dark it's quite bright too - just not filled with sunshine.

pimento

There's another couplle of sites that will give you all round arial photos. Pictures may have been taken at different times of the year. Just put the post code in.


www.aboutmyplace.co.uk

www.bing.com

On the first site, if they have it, go for the birds eye view. Then you can look from all four compass points. You should be able to see the back of the house.

puddy

we have a north facing garden and obviously south facing front

personally i prefer it this way, our bedroom is at the back as is the kitchen, it means these rooms stay cool in summer. i never notice them being cold in winter

the sun is very hot in the front which means the living room is often hot and the hallway, the heat then rises upstairs

the sun moves over the house, so the garden is sunny from the back then moves down the garden, we have the evening sun

MacMickster

Is it the garden that you want to get the sun or the rooms at the back of the house?

If its the garden then I don't think that you will have a problem. Also, from the picture, imagine that the house had a smaller garden that stopped at the end of the garage/shed. If the remainder of the garden belonged to a house built behind then they would be calling it a south-west facing garden.

amblondon

We currently have a NE facing garden, 25 feet long, London. The house is in a terrace. Neighbours to east and west. Mid-summer I'd say we get some sun in the garden until around 4 - 4.30pm. Mornings are bright and sunny at the back of the house and the sun at the front is pleasant as that's where the main living accommodation is.

Cheers

hazyjo

I think ours faces the same way. We get the sun in the mornings at the back on the patio, up 'til early afternoon. The sun streams through the front windows late pm. Our (1st floor) lounge is at the back and, tbh, I like that the sun's not shining in it later in the day. It's not a dark room at all as there are balcony doors at the front of the house and the hallway stretches to the lounge door. We also have balcony doors off the lounge and a good sized window.

We get the sun at the back of the garden pretty much until very late pm. Personally, I'd hate to sit on the patio in boiling direct sunshine and it suits us that it's not in direct sunlight in the pm. We use it far more, and are able to sit in it for ages without worrying about burning. If you're sun-worshippers who'll be out there day and night in summer, don't go for it - although we could put sunloungers at the back of the garden I suppose...

The only really dark 'room' is our downstairs hallway in the mornings/early-mid pm as there's not much in the way of light getting to it. I can live with that... Oh, and a back bedroom tends to be quite dark, but we're getting white wallpaper put up at the mo with a reflective silver slightly sparkly pattern in it. Should brighten it up a bit! And I'm not one for light bedrooms anyway. I'll 'darken' the lighter ones with colour on the walls! The blue that's currently in that back bedroom absolutely absorbs every drop of light!

Jx