New build / off plan worries - garden directly facing side of neighbour’s house

sundaysunshine80

Hi everyone,  

I'm hoping you can provide me with advice on an issue that’s been keeping me awake at night, and I can’t see any other threads that deal with this issue.

My husband and I are looking at buying our forever home which is an off plan new build. We have found a really nice development however, as it’s going to be our forever home, I want to make sure we are choosing one that ticks all the boxes so going through the plot with a fine tooth comb. The plot we are looking at has a NW facing garden, but the garden will directly overlook the side of another house (both our house and neighbours house are two level detached houses). We currently have a garden that backs onto another garden and then the house, which we have no issue with, but I’m worried that in the case of the new build the neighbours house is going to block any nice view we may have, and also will affect the amount of sun we will receive. The window overlooking will be a frosted window so privacy shouldn’t be an issue. The house will be 3/4 over our garden and 1/4 over our neighbours garden (to the west of our garden) and our patio will be on the west side of the garden. We think our garden will be around 9m in length.

if anyone has any pictures or can let me know what their experiences with this set up are it would be much appreciated, as I’m f8mdimg it difficult to picture it and can’t decide whether it will be a negative or not.

Thank you so much I’m advance! 

Doozergirl

NW is the worst aspect.  It's your house that will overshadow your garden, not your neighbours.  But their house won't help any feeling of openness.  

sundaysunshine80

Thanks Doozergirl we aren’t huge sun worshipers so we don’t mind our house overshadowing, I’ve worked out that our house will overshadow our garden until 4:30pm so it’s the worry that the neighbour’s house will overshadow from 4:30pm onwards and just the idea of having a two storey wall as a view but so hard to picture it

OldMusicGuy

There's various online shadow calculators that let you work out what the shadow will be like (eg shadowcalculator.eu). Without seeing the plot sizes and plot layouts, I don't think it's possible to say how overlooked you will be.

We had a SW facing garden in our last place and we are moving to a place with a N facing garden. Personally I am looking forward to that, S facing gardens are not my idea of fun. With a southerly aspect, the rear of the house/patio area gets blasted with heat. In these days of increasing temperatures I'm looking forward to always having shade by the house where we will sit. But then I am not a sun worshipper, YMMV. 

sundaysunshine80

Thanks Oldmusicguy, I’ve used one of the shadow calculators so hoping it’s accurate and we will get sun until 7:30pm but I’m not 100% trusting it. Same, I sat out for 30 mins today and was far too hot so shade is welcomed during the hottest part of the day! Through all of my research, north facing would be ideal. There’s another plot which has a NE facing which we have completely ruled out. I’ll drawn a rough estimate of the plot which I hope adds some perspective

sundaysunshine80

Rough idea of the plot

Doozergirl

How far the sun makes it round of an afternoon is entirely dependent of the time of year , so you can't say that a garden gets sun until
4.30pm, because every day is different.  Even during the longest days, the sun will never make it as far as your neighbours, but for most of the year it will not make it past your own house. 

I can't see you getting much direct sun at all, from that angle.  I have celtic skin, but I'm happier creating my own shade than being forced to endure it all year round. 

I hope the front garden is nice.  

ka7e

I must admit, that when it came to buying a house, I discounted many purely for them having a North-facing garden! During the winter months the sun is much lower in the sky, so I think from October to March you will have virtually no sun in the garden at all. You don't have to be a sun-worshipper to appreciate a W, S or S/W facing garden - it's difficult to find attractive plants that do well in deep shade and a lawn will be very mossy. Shaded patios and decking are likely to get more moss and lichen than sunnier ones. Your washing line is likely to be in shade too.

RelievedSheff

Your garden set up sounds very like ours only ours is east facing. 

[img]https://i.ibb.co/fp6Cccn/20200810-065546.jpg[/img]

We like the set up as it makes the garden very private. The only window we have facing our garden is next doors bathroom obscure glazed window. The house is also very detached. Our next door neighbours are 13m away at the bottom of the garden (10m garden and 3m driveway behind the wall) and to the side are 6m away across a double width driveway.

Flugelhorn

OldMusicGuy said:

There's various online shadow calculators that let you work out what the shadow will be like (eg shadowcalculator.eu). Without seeing the plot sizes and plot layouts, I don't think it's possible to say how overlooked you will be.

We had a SW facing garden in our last place and we are moving to a place with a N facing garden. Personally I am looking forward to that, S facing gardens are not my idea of fun. With a southerly aspect, the rear of the house/patio area gets blasted with heat. In these days of increasing temperatures I'm looking forward to always having shade by the house where we will sit. But then I am not a sun worshipper, YMMV. 

I agree - we have just moved to house with N facing garden , kitchen at the back stays nice and cool - lots of sun in most of the garden if we want it. 
Re the OP's house - On new estates it is hard to get places that don't look out onto another house somehow and maybe side of house is better?

Tiglet2

I don't think the neighbour's house will be a problem.  However, your house will block the sun unless the sun is very high.  What buildings, if any, are to the left of your house and garden, i.e. in the West?  That would be more of an issue, because the sun comes round to the west as the afternoon becomes late afternoon/evening.