Semi-Detached with SW facing garden vs Detached with North facing garden

A Neurotic

I'm in a new build end of terrace house (Castlethorn, built 2019) with a west-facing garden. I haven't heard as much as a tap on the wall from the neighbours, and have reaped great benefit from the sunny garden.

JustAThought

A Neurotic wrote: »

I'm in a new build end of terrace house (Castlethorn, built 2019) with a west-facing garden. I haven't heard as much as a tap on the wall from the neighbours, and have reaped great benefit from the sunny garden.

Neighbours are never a problem when you cannot hear them. Found that out the hard way. You never appreciate peace, calm and quiet in your home until it is stolen from you - by your neighbours. Never again.

QuiteInterestin

Thanks again for all the replies and advice.

JustAThought wrote: »

You haven’t mentioned the front gardens at all yet? Some of my neighbours whose front are South facing have done beautiful enclosed gardens in their fronts complete with woven wicker fences for privacy ( buy in 6 foot sheets in woodies) and with sunloungers, woven style table & chairs, heat burners with dinky lights and landscaping - they are relatively small - car & about 25 foot but really imaginative and private. Everyone admires them. Will your detached house have a front garden or a side garden - google small gardens designs or city gardens designs and you can see how people really make the most of what they have. If the back is North then the front is South - make that work for you!

Not much of a front garden unfortunately for either - a double driveway and a wide strip of grass - so couldn't do much with them.

JustAThought wrote: »

A 10m garden is not long - about 30 foot. Mature trees at the end of it will make a huge difference when you look out the window . You mentioned higgledy piggeldy angles - would the council have scale maps in planning of the proposals and of the approved final layouts - that is what you will see rom your window and what they will see into yours. Do you work from home? Will covid 19 change that? Will one of the front sunny South facing bedrooms now be an office where you will get the sun all day as tou work - that would be nice!

Ya, I've been looking at the online plans, just hard to visualise what it'll be like when they're not built yet. Due to my profession, it's very unlikely I'll ever be working from home

JustAThought wrote: »

Why type of trees? There is a big difference between a eucylaptus or betula or willow or ash versus a 30 year old Laylandi so hideous and hated they leglislate against them in the Uk.

They're definitely not laylandis - hate those trees too.

gk5000 wrote: »

OP, it does not matter what everbody else thinks, its you has to live in it. Use the sun calculator apps to see where will be bright and shaded throughout the year, and visit some friends houses at different times of day. Dark = depressing for me..there is no substitute for sunlight/daylight.

Thanks, ya I've been using suncalc but must look at a few others.

Thanks again for all the opinions. It's great to get advice from others who have lived with both.

REFLINE1

A detached house in a modern housing estate is not really the same as a detached house down the country on its own plot of land. They experience a lot of the same issues with noise and privacy as semi-d houses or terraced. In a lot of new estates the detached houses are just sandwiched in between rows of semi-d's etc and share a garden fence with houses on either side. Their side entrances to gardens etc will still be right next to the semi-d side entrance and you'll still be bumping into your neighbors regularly taking out the bins!

Yes clearly they benefit from not having a connecting wall to neighbors in the houses but the benefits are actually fairly minimal in this situation. I sometimes feel on here that when people are extolling the virtues of detached v's semi-d on these threads they are talking about proper detached one off builds on plots of land down the country.

OP its a tight call for me but id go for the SW garden i think.

Conrad83

We have just bought a semi D corner house which is north west facing. We have nothing to our right (although this may change in the future however there is a road alongside our house).

The house behind us is facing sideways. From my understanding we will get the sun in the evening time? And it is better then North facing? This would be more desirable for us as we are in Mon-Fri 9-5 jobs.

A Neurotic

JustAThought wrote: »

Neighbours are never a problem when you cannot hear them. Found that out the hard way. You never appreciate peace, calm and quiet in your home until it is stolen from you - by your neighbours. Never again.

My point was moreso that the build quality of the new house makes for excellent soundproofing, rather than a reflection on the neighbours' activity levels.

theteal

Conrad83 wrote: »

We have just bought a semi D corner house which is north west facing. We have nothing to our right (although this may change in the future however there is a road alongside our house).

The house behind us is facing sideways. From my understanding we will get the sun in the evening time? And it is better then North facing? This would be more desirable for us as we are in Mon-Fri 9-5 jobs.

Yup you'll get it in the evenings coming from the west (the side of the house and end of the garden will get it for most of the day).


Is it the suncalc website that's decent for checking?

JustAThought

OP - tou say you can’t work from home so the hours you will be getting the sun in the back ( north) of your detached house will be the hours when you are home from work, having dinner/ drinks in the garden or in from your days out elsewhere. And you will have a more valuable asset arguably & no noise from the other side of a shared neighbours wall for all thise dark winter nights and tv evenings in - which there will be a lot more of in the future.

Developers never sell nowadays all their ‘best’ assets but create pressure and sell built block by built block - releasing the next ‘phase’ when they have sold all the previous one and then we discover hey presto - there are eg south west facing detached houses suddenly available. Have you rung your friendly council planning office and asked them to check previously granted planning permissions in the area of the development you are looking in? You might find it hs totally didferent folio numbers or the development was capatilised or used a fada ir an irish version of the english name with the english in brackets after - all the tricks so that it won’t turn up in a regular search. Might be worth your while.

(Definately not detached!!) !!

QuiteInterestin

Thanks for all the replies and advice. It looks like the decision has been taken out of our hands. While I had hoped the detached would be within our budget based on some provisional prices I heard, this turns out not to be the case and it would be too much of a stretch to afford the detached so semi-detached all the way. Fingers crossed for good sound proofing!

Dylan94

QuiteInterestin wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies and advice. It looks like the decision has been taken out of our hands. While I had hoped the detached would be within our budget based on some provisional prices I heard, this turns out not to be the case and it would be too much of a stretch to afford the detached so semi-detached all the way. Fingers crossed for good sound proofing!

Anyone that I know in a new build has said that the sound proofing is excellent. So I wouldn't be too worried about that.

QuiteInterestin

Dylan94 wrote: »

Anyone that I know in a new build has said that the sound proofing is excellent. So I wouldn't be too worried about that.

That's great to hear, thanks