Advice on position of garden

casson2006

Hi,

I wonder if anyone could offer some advice.
Me and my husband are looking at buying a new build and just unsure about how the garden will be. The garden on the plot is north (slightly east) facing and i am just wondering how much sun it will actually see.
Its a detached and there are no other houses close by that i could see that would shadow it. The kitchen is very open with patio doors.

I have tried to add a picture of the plot location but it doesn't seem to let me.

HouseBuyer77

Take look at this website: http://www.findmyshadow.com/

It can give you an idea of the shadows given the height and layout of the buildings and other obstructions around.

If it's detached with no other obstructions nearby I suspect you'll get plenty of sun, unless it's not a very long garden.

I've got a north facing garden in a pretty tight estate, still sun to be had on nice days close to the house.

Auntie-Dolly

We have a long north east facing garden which gets sun all day, but the actual back of the house is quite dark as it never gets any sun.

AlexMac

Your NNE facing garden isn't the best for maximum sun; an ideal would be S or better, SW facing to getthe evening sun, so assuming your patio doors face the garden, they won't get sun on them...

but it really depends on how big your garden is relative to the house, and then, on the season which will determine how high the sun is, and thus, the length of the shadow cast by your house.

If you use google, with permutations of words like shadow, sun. calculator, seasons... you'll find incrdibly geeky sites like
http://www.findmyshadow.com/

but as I can't understand this fully, entertaining though it is, let's apply common sense. Now- in Spring, one third of the way between Dec and June, the sun's due south and at about 45 degrees at noon (which is an hour away as I type). So the shadow it casts (which I've just checked by walking out front - in my case, north of my house- so about where your garden will be), is about the same length as my house is high; about 7-8 meters (less, in fact, as my roof ridge is 5-6 m back from the frontage). My rear south facing garden is bathed in sun now, but in winter it's permanently shaded because there are 4 storey buildings only 30-40 meters away to the south.

In summer it's less shaded; as the sun's high enough to clear my 30m plus neighbours' rooflines

So it will depend in part on your neighbours' height and proximity too!


But play with calculators, as architects do when submitting planning applications

Cakeguts

The only thing I would add is that we have solar panels on our roof. They are on the back of the house because our garden faces south west. If you have a north facing back garden and you want to have solar panels they will be on the front roof of your house.

casson2006

Thanks for all the input! This is the development plan and it's plot 77:
https://www.barratthomes.co.uk/new-homes/derbyshire/H613301-Becket's-Brow/#prettyPhoto[siteplan]/0/

ReadingTim

casson2006 wrote: »

Its a detached and there are no other houses close by that i could see that would shadow it.

Developers don't make money by providing large plots with big gardens that won't be overshadowed and/or overlooked. They make their money by cramming in as many properties onto a piece of land as they can reasonably get away with. Make of that what you will...

Hoploz

I had a north facing garden it was ok as the end of it got the sun. It was a benefit to have the kids playing on the patio near the house in blazing hot summer still being in the shade.

The house itself was what shaded the garden. Not the neighbours. Better in a bungalow perhaps, if it's a 3 storey town house with short garden then you not get any sun at all.

I didn't realise what we were missing out on until we moved. We have a nice sunny patio now. The main difference is if you like to sit out after work in the evening. If you have afternoon sun then you can do this, but in the north facing garden it's very cold by evening time as the warm sun has gone off hours earlier.

downhillfast

Hoploz wrote: »

if it's a 3 storey town house with short garden then you not get any sun at all.

We lived in just this, about 5 years ago! It was depressing as although the downstairs back rooms didn't feel dark (lots of glass) the back garden was really not representative of what the weather was actually like in the summer! The only bit that got a tiny amount of sun was the corner where the bins were! We had it as a rental as the owner had not been able to sell it... they were still trying to sell it with no luck when we left a couple of years later...

This made us very aware of what we wanted when we finally bought a place... south or southwest facing garden for me every time now!

ibizafan_2

West facing every time for me, as you get sun on the front of the house in the morning. An estate agent also told me that west facing is considered the most favoured aspect amongst house buyers.

Davesnave

ibizafan wrote: »

An estate agent also told me that west facing is considered the most favoured aspect amongst house buyers.

Surely, the most favoured aspect is to be in the middle of the plot with garden on all sides?

Also, not every house is orientated the same way indoors. Some houses have the kitchen at the front.