Northeast facing garden

pimento

Oh and I would also move the garage to the side if I could. The garden, having nothing on one side will get loads more sun.
The most sunny spot in our garden is the spot equivalent to where your garage is.

Davesnave

pimento wrote: »

The photo might have been taken in the winter.

The one I'm looking at was taken in the middle of the day in summer, or what passes for it in this country.

pimento wrote: »

Oh and I would also move the garage to the side if I could. The garden, having nothing on one side will get loads more sun.
The most sunny spot in our garden is the spot equivalent to where your garage is.

While true, this is a double sized garage/outbuilding, so the cost of that might well outweigh the benefits.

I agree that long NE -SW orientated gardens get plenty of sun at the far end, so if this one was 100' it wouldn't be such an issue. Slope comes into it too, but this one looks flattish.

wayo231

gaisma.com/en/location/london.html

This sun path diagram (3rd) gives you an idea of the sun direction and height at different times of the year using the concentric rings to indicate sun angle above the horizon.

csgnetwork.com/righttricalc.html

This site allows you to figure the shadow length.

Side a is the house height.
Angle A is the angle of the sun above the horizon from the gaisma sun path chart.

It works out the rest for you - Side b being how far down the garden the shadow goes.

Even on 21 June at 6pm in London it is just less than 30deg above the horizon. A 45deg angle coming over an 8.5m house would cast an 8.5m shadow if the sun was right coming right over the roof.

So if the evening sun is coming over the house:

21 June at 6pm in London the shadow is 16m based on 28 degrees height and an 8.5m house.

Halfway between the equinox (May & August lets say) and longest day at 6pm looks about 15deg above the horizon, so roughly a 32m shadow from an 8.5m house meaning lights out completely, even in a 100ft garden.

ibizafan_2

I'm afraid that the way a house faces is important to me, and I'm surprised that so many people don't think about it. My present house has a west facing garden, and to me that's perfect, as I get sun on the front in the morning and sun in the back from later in the morning, and then all day until sunset (of course!) It does depend on how large your garden is, but I actually like sun on the house as well as in the garden, if you know what I mean. A house in a perfect location that faces the wrong way would be a deal breaker, but that's only my opinion, of course.

sunshinetours

Tmesis wrote: »

I agree. We've got a south facing garden and I wouldn't want anything else. We had a north-east facing garden in our last place and we just couldn't use it.

One thing, though - it looks from that photo that the end of the garden gets sun. My first house had a north-facing garden but it was long; I* built the patio at the far end and it got sun all day - effectively south facing. Could that be an option for you?

*when I say "I", I mean "my dad"

Exactly no generalisations unless you know surrounding lie of land and other properties. ourts is pretty much NNE but rises upwards from house and is over 80ft so second half of garden is pretty sunny all day and that is where we hav main patio, cabin, BBQ etc
Advantage of north facing back of house is keeping temperature down in summer on rear and conservatory.

Saying all that SW would probably be my ideal layout *with no conservatory) but wouldn't be put off by direction in general without knowing circumstances

GRR Just seen date of original post so old news

pinkteapot

It's a personal choice. I would only ever buy a house with a south or west facing garden, and it mustn't have buildings around it that would shade it. I love being outside, spend as much time as possible in the garden, and we have lots of BBQs etc in summer.

I'm currently spoilt rotten by a garden that faces due south with no shade. We only lose the sun in the mid-evening.

If you're into gardening its even worse as things don't grow as well in a north-facing garden, grass tends to be mossier, etc.

aj9648

How can you tell which way the garden is facing by looking at the rightmove maps or google maps??

Davesnave

aj9648 wrote: »

How can you tell which way the garden is facing by looking at the rightmove maps or google maps??

Because they're always the same way up.

sunshinetours

aj9648 wrote: »

How can you tell which way the garden is facing by looking at the rightmove maps or google maps??

The compass in the corner when you search on the maps?!

StuC75

Its more about how the house faces on to that garden and anything else that may be in the path of the Sun to your garden .. e.g. a garden is southfacing , but a wood at the end casts the garden in shade.. but the patio area of the garden gets the sun all day.. is that still better than a south westerly garden without such shade... so its really all about how built up it is..