do we lose too much garden with this extension?
Heather
5 years ago
Current size of our garden is ~12.5m length, ~8.5m width. Plan to do double storey extension at rear within permitted development, so 4m ground floor and 3m 1st floor. Will leave us with a main garden of 8.5m long, 8.5m width. It is a detached house and we hopefully going to get small side extension to increase ground floor area leaving us with an additional side return of about 4mx2m -plan to put the shed here.
We’d like to have a patio for seating/outdoor table, maybe a pergola, BBQ area, and still some lawn for potential children to play on. Few areas for potted plants - prefer these to flowerbeds. There are no large trees in the garden - we have a small blossom tree which is beautiful when in flower and would like to keep.
Photo below of current garden - can’t see full garden as there is already a small 1980’s rear extension on the house - a 4m ground floor extension would extend to around half a metre beyond the current decking. Garage will be demolished to allow more space in garden. Garden is south facing so plenty of sun (and will have even more sun once the garage is gone)
Is this extension going to eat up too much of the garden? It’s the one thing that’s bugging me about this extension as I can’t visualise it in my head.
Anybody got any advice or been in a similar situation and has pics would be much appreciated!
Thank you!
We’d like to have a patio for seating/outdoor table, maybe a pergola, BBQ area, and still some lawn for potential children to play on. Few areas for potted plants - prefer these to flowerbeds. There are no large trees in the garden - we have a small blossom tree which is beautiful when in flower and would like to keep.
Photo below of current garden - can’t see full garden as there is already a small 1980’s rear extension on the house - a 4m ground floor extension would extend to around half a metre beyond the current decking. Garage will be demolished to allow more space in garden. Garden is south facing so plenty of sun (and will have even more sun once the garage is gone)
Is this extension going to eat up too much of the garden? It’s the one thing that’s bugging me about this extension as I can’t visualise it in my head.
Anybody got any advice or been in a similar situation and has pics would be much appreciated!
Thank you!
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Comments (13)
Heather
5 years agoRelated Discussions
What can we do with our garden .... ?
Comments (3)There is a great TV programme called Big Dreams Small Spaces which may inspire you. There is also a forum on the Gardener's World website where you can post questions or ask for advice. My best advice is - do something that YOU like and want, for example: you don't have to have grass in a garden/you can grow vegetables amongst flower borders/have a theme like wildlife-friendly....See MoreWhat to do in Garden. Wall from neighbour's extension!!!
Comments (14)You can get blocks that are planters and build it up to the height and length needed. They were first shown at The Chelsea Flower Show, very easy to install - this way you don't need to touch your neighbours property (I have used them myself for a friends garden). I will try to get the name of the company we used as can't remember it. Shannon...See Moreshould we do fence of hedge in front of our small front garden.
Comments (16)Nice job on the house. Looks very smart:) Personally I prefer to see a hedge in a front garden but with a low wall in front to prevent soil/debris from spilling out on the pavement. Griselinia littoralis has beautiful evergreen apple green foliage that would look lovely against the house, fast growing and can kept trimmed to about eyelevel and 2ft thick. Plus there are many other plants that can be used as hedging depending on your requirements. Yew and privet are also good choices as these can be kept neat and tidy, although privet requires more regular trimming. Your cheapest option however is probably going to be fencing as this will require less ground work. A low wall approx 1ft high will not need much foundation work so also reducing cost. Hedges will need a certain amount of soil preparation but this is something that can easily be done by yourself. I’d ask a few local landscape gardeners to give you a few rough ideas on cost....See MoreShould we lose a bedroom for upstairs bathroom?
Comments (27)Fair enough! If you're getting on a loft conversion further down the line, it'd be wiser to just convert the smallest bedroom as @rinked suggested. I can't advise on cost as the bathroom was put in by the previous owners 5 years ago, who likely benefited from the fact the soil stack is on the side of the house rather than the back. We don't really have the roof height for us to consider a loft conversion, most people in my area with end-terrace/semi detached properties opt for double storey extensions to add an extra bedroom or make a upper bedroom bigger....See MoreHeather
5 years agoHeather
5 years ago
Ellie
5 years agoA B
5 years agofionaoneill
5 years agofionaoneill
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
swimmingsarah
5 years agoHeather
5 years agoThanks for comments, we are south facing so won’t block athe light from our garden and do plan to have big Bifolding/sliding doors. Here’s another photo taken early morning - it’s hard to take a photo showing the full size of the garden due to the pre-existing small double storey extension (seen in the right side of this pic)
Heather
5 years agoPhotos from different angles - as you can see we don’t have much space to do a side extension - only 2.3m between our house and next door, and only 2m of that is actually within our plot - so any side extension we do is simply to create a little extra room for eg downstairs loo/utility rather than create a whole extra room
Emily
5 years ago
Ellie