Does a South facing house get unbearable in the Summer?

[kungfooweetie]

Hi there

I hope someone might have some experience to share here;

There's no shortage of information to be found on the topic of a North facing garden and I feel like I know what I'm getting myself into however, I've been wondering about the ramifications of having a South-facing house.

My boyfriend and I have found a property that ticks all of our boxes; a terrace in a safe, green area within 30 minutes' walking distance from the city centre - up until now a matchbox sized back yard was the extent of our cat-access hopes.

The fact that the house has something that could even be described as a garden is impressive- no matter which direction it faces.

A slimy, shaded back garden I can deal with (would love, even) - but does that means we'll bake in our front room with the curtains drawn?

We have a South facing house and it doesn't get too hot, but it really does depend on the house itself, how its built etc. For example my inlaws have a west facing house that gets unbearably hot.

Can you do a viewing for early afternoon sometime? That's when the house is likely to be hottest and should give you a good idea.

The front of the house faces south you mean? Is it directly south?

Our back garden faces SSE and all the main rooms are at the back. If it's ridiculously hot I might leave the bedroom curtains closed during the day, haven't done that yet this year though. We do have sliding windows that you can lock closed with a trickle vent open for a little ventilation, they're good.

Our doesn't get too hot in summer, if anything the north facing rooms are too cold and dark in winter. But the front door paint fades at an alarming rate !

Thank you for your reassurance! We put an offer in on the house after we decided a frosty North facing garden would be something we could deal with, it was only later that I considered the heat.

Hen, we will be facing South square in the face!

I don't think it gets too hot, but the sun streaming in really shows how dusty the windows are

My house is south facing and it does get pretty hot in the front (it's old and badly insulated) unless I do as the French do which is close my curtains/shutters during the day (and windows too as they let in hot air) and open them all in the evening/when the sun has moved off.

Even then, it's really only an issue if the weather is like the back end of last week was (26 and cloudless). Most of the time, it's fine. And it's absolutely lovely to have the sun streaming in over winter when the world feels a little gloomy :)

Hope your offer is accepted

We have a south facing back garden, but it doesn't affect the front at all apart from the bay window in our bedroom getting the sunrise, but DS's bedroom at the back gets a lot of sun all day. It is cool in our house mostly. If you like the sun, the garden will be a real suntrap!

We rented a house that faced north, with the back garden facing south. The front rooms (living room and main bedroom) were freezing in the winter and stuffy in the summer. The back rooms (kitchen, bedroom and bathroom) were warmish in the winter but blisteringly hot in the summer. It was an early 90's build mid terrace, poorly insulated with wooden windows though.

We are south facing at the moment (moving to a house that is north facing so going from one extreme to another!)

For us, our garden, and the living room (which has the patio doors) gets very warm. The carpet in the living room was bleached from the sun so we had to replace it and we ended up putting a gazebo thing up on the back of the house (which Wisteria has overtime grown through) to give some much needed shade.

Personally we are not sun worshipers in my house - all far to fair skinned! But with the shade we get the best of both worlds and you can definetly sit out in the garden longer.

For me, the main down fall of south facing is that the back end of our garden by the back fence doesnt get enough sun so it is mostly just slimey moss. If we were staying in our current house I think we would end up decking the back of the garden.