Which direction back garden is the best?

Leesider32 said:

Have the measurement now, it is 8.5m, I'm presuming that is fairly standard height but please someone correct me if I am wrong.

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you should be able to use this to figure out the shadow from the 8.5m , but im guessing it will be significant, how long is the garden?

Great site, I think it is actually the fence that might be the biggest issue to getting the sun in the evening. Plot attached, garden roughly 9m at its longest.

Leesider32 said:

Great site, I think it is actually the fence that might be the biggest issue to getting the sun in the evening. Plot attached, garden roughly 9m at its longest.

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i am no expert, but i think you might struggle to get any sun back there.

Blackrock1 said:

i am no expert, but i think you might struggle to get any sun back there.

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In summer most of the back will get the late afternoon and evening sunshine, granted in winter it will only get an hour or so on a sunny day. May to September again will get late afternoon sunshine. To be honest it is the evening sunshine that most interests me. I am used to less in our current house so not too concerned to be honest provided I have used the website correctly.

See attached for 21st June and 21st Dec, mine will be the semi-d on the left (made up of the 2 left hand side boxes), there will be nothing to the west of us except for a fence. The garden will go back as far as the main grid line to the north. The semi-d beside us is screwed though for light as they will have to contend with us and the detached beside them!!

Leesider32 said:

In summer most of the back will get the late afternoon and evening sunshine,

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You need to add the fence the length of the back garden. At 3pm in June a 1.8m fence will be casting a ~1.5m shadow, by 5pm that will be more than 3m, at 7pm ~7m. You might have a nice afternoon sun-trap against the eastern fence, but not likely something you will want to use for evening dining / socialising.

Leo said:

You need to add the fence the length of the back garden. At 3pm in June a 1.8m fence will be casting a ~1.5m shadow, by 5pm that will be more than 3m, at 7pm ~7m. You might have a nice afternoon sun-trap against the eastern fence, but not likely something you will want to use for evening dining / socialising.

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Yeah that's my main concern, will just have to wait and see on that one and what options we might have.

Leo said:

You can use a site like this one to calculate shadow lengths.

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Absolutely critical for a new build to work this out as otherwise it wont be obvious until you're in and it's too late.

NW will be slow to heat up in spring, but you would get nice evening sunshine summer as and autumn, growing wont be affected too much by this orientation.

I'd go with the first and invest in cypress pencils trees every 6 feet and the over look would be greatly reduced.

Definitely SW, it's like having an extra (outdoor) room in summer!

SW without a doubt. Does the spirit and body good to be able to avail of all the natural light and heat you can.

I know you haven't moved it yet, but it also helps with resale value

Never ever ever go for a north facing back garden, You will regret it. It's cold and depressing in the evening.

West facing is the best in my opinion. You get the sun from noon until sundown. So go for SW out of the two options.

I've lived in a house with a north facing back garden and it's not great. Couldn't believe the difference in my current house with a west facing back garden.

Our previous house had a north facing back garden that was always wet and damp during winter. When buying that house, we fell for it's size and condition and mistakenly didn't consider the aspect. The back of the house was cold and dark during the daytime for most of the year and the front living room which we hardly used during the daytime was very warm and bright. The front room had soft furnishings and carpet so we ended up keeping the blinds pulled down for most of the day here so as to avoid materials fading from the sun. Such a waste of 'free' heat and light.

We decided to move house as we were getting older and planning towards retirement during which time we'd likely be spending more time at home during the day. We moved house and after location, the garden aspect was the most important criteria for us, ahead of house size and condition. We now have a south facing garden that we love. The rear of house where we spend most of our time during the day when at home is always bright and we rarely need to turn on the heating during the day even in winter time as the winter sun tends to heat these rooms. We have triple glazed windows and velux's so this side doesn't get too warm in summer either.

If at all possible I'd always advise placing garden aspect high on your priority list when choosing a house, ahead of size and condition. You can always remodel / extend but can never change the aspect. That's our experience anyway