Would a house at the top of a steep road with a steep driveway put you off?

ellie27

I suppose it all depends on how steep it is?

The house ticks nearly all the boxes but has this hill that we cant quite get our heads around. The house is on a steep road and the driveway is steep too!

The house has been up for sale for 4 months so they are struggling to sell no doubt because of this! And it would possibly be tricky selling it on, however we do look at the house as not just short term.

The street is not like this but the driveway is....
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hig_37/7991155172/

lmwarr21

I recently viewed a house with a steep drive I did not know when booking that it had a drive like this. The house was lovely but due to the drive we did not put an offer in it really put us off.

lovinituk

I've lived in two houses with driveways that slope. The last house it sloped down towards the road quite severely and the current house, it slopes towards the house but not too steep. I've hated them both! Mostly because trying to do any work on a vehicle is a right pain. I usually have to move things to the road (cars and a boat) to do a lot of jobs as working on a sloped surface makes things harder and sometimes dangerous.

We're moving again soon and one of the requirements when looking for the new house will be that the ground it is on is flat and level!! No more slopes for me.

Davesnave

Being at the top is better than being down at the bottom when it's time for a flash-flood, but it's not so good when retuning from a walk or taking the shopping in.

And you need to have a good handbrake!

The problem with many houses built on a slope is that the garden continues at the same angle, so it becomes a physical challenge rather than a place to relax.

Also, houses built against slopes can suffer from things like road noise rebound, but obviously that depends on the exact situation.

We rented a house with a steep front drive and garden. The views were good, and we weren't overlooked, but there the advantages seemed to end.

ellie27

Davesnave wrote: »

Being at the top is better than being down at the bottom when it's time for a flash-flood, but it's not so good when retuning from a walk or taking the shopping in.

And you need to have a good handbrake!

The problem with many houses built on a slope is that the garden continues at the same angle, so it becomes a physical challenge rather than a place to relax.

Also, houses built against slopes can suffer from things like road noise rebound, but obviously that depends on the exact situation.

We rented a house with a steep front drive and garden. The views were good, and we weren't overlooked, but there the advantages seemed to end.

The views are great from the front of house.

The back garden is the biggest selling point of the house - large, long and south facing and flat and lots of lovely shrubbery/hedges/some small trees mean it is really not overlooked either.

I_have_spoken

I'd avoid, once you have to have stairs down from the patio to the garden and put bricks behind the car's wheels it's all too much hassle.

Also, as soon as there's a frost and snow it'll be lethal.

lovinituk

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Also, as soon as there's a frost and snow it'll be lethal.

The last house I had with the nasty sloping drive and it snowed quite badly, we had a 4x4 and a normal family saloon at the time. The 4x4 coped as expected but we dare not even try to move the other car off! If we managed it in one piece, it would not have gone back on until it all thawed out.

MadelinesMum

It would put be off a bit. There are some houses with steep drives near by daughter's school and many of the cars have bricks in front of their wheels. And, also remember if you decide to reverse into the drive then your clutch may not last as long as usual.

Some of the house have a drive dug out along the front of the house, would it be possible / cost effective to do that?

ellie27

MadelinesMum wrote: »

Some of the house have a drive dug out along the front of the house, would it be possible / cost effective to do that?

The drive leads to the garage though so its not as if we can flatten it or anything, there is only a small area of garden to front of house too.

Brallaqueen

Can you afford a nice house without a slope or is the slope the reason this nice house is in your price bracket? Its important to know in order to give opinions I think. If you couldn't afford such a nice house otherwise it would not put me off so.much

martinthebandit

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Can you afford a nice house without a slope or is the slope the reason this nice house is in your price bracket? Its important to know in order to give opinions I think. If you couldn't afford such a nice house otherwise it would not put me off so.much

Is the right answer, is a steep drive an acceptable compromise for you to make to get the house you want?

Personally it wouldn't bother me, I would just think of the reduced flooding risk.