Link- detached houses are just semis by anther name?

[lboogy]

I was looking at detached houses and our budget won't stretch to a detached house in our area so it's linked- detached for me.

The trouble is if I build up above the garage and the neighbour does the same then I've got a semi and not detached. Is it worth delinking the garage and create a 1m gap between me and the neighbour?

I hated having to share a driveway with the previous neighbour so looking for advise.

This picture is not of my house btw - just one I found on Google

I believe that if anyone did an extension above their garage then it cannot be built out to the boundary so there would still be a gap even if both sides did extend op.

I guess if both neighbours converted the ground floor of the garage however then it would be a semi

Our cul de sac is link detached e.g. house, garage, house. I think it's weird to call it detached when you can walk round the house.

You wouldn't get planning permission to build over the garage here as it would change the 'look' of the street.

You are quite right that if those two building projects happen then you have a semi, assuming both neighbours have the funds and get the permission to do so.

Question is, do 4 bed semis sell for more or less than a 3 bed link-detached? (Or would it be 5-bed semi vs 4 bed ld?)

Or would you just be fundamentally dissatisfied if you ended up living in a semi, despite the extra room?

The disadvantage of a semi is that you do get some noise through from the neighbours. You could go ahead with your build and just sacrifice 20cm of internet space to put in some top-quality sound insulation on the party wall?

I grew up in a link-detached home and in our case my parents never went ahead with any idea to build above the garage, and my dad said this was because the foundations under the garage were inadequate to support the weight of a second storey so any building project would have to first start with a massive and costly exercise to deepen and strengthen the foundations before we achieved anything at all, and he reckoned the developers deliberately chose to build absolutely minimal foundations under the garages specifically to discourage any such projects. If there aren't a lot of built-above garages in your neighbourhood you may find that the same is true for you.

I've seen a few houses where there is a room on top of the garage. The trouble is the room will be long and narrow and to me not a good use of space. I did see one where the room above the garage became an en-suite.
There isn't much in price between a 3 bed detached and 4 bed house semi - maybe £25k difference... not sure really. It's really hard to tell.

I reckon I might keep looking

I've wondered about this loads cos our house is link detached but only on one side. It's our garage, our house, neighbor's garage and neighbors house. If our NDN decided to extend above the garage we would be a semi BUT I wouldnt think they would be allowed to attach an extension to the side of our house...

I've no idea of the rules but there must be some!

I grew up in a house that was a semi on one side to the right (as you look towards the house from the street) and on the left was the garage which was attached to the garage of the right hand house of the next pair of semis. In the 70's my parents and the garage attached neighbours both extended over the garages- done by the same builder at the same time- and now it looks like my parents house is one of the middle two of a 4 property terrace.

Most Councils require first floor side extensions to be set back at least 1m from the boundary. Many also require them to be set back from the main front elevation.

My house is at the end of a short terrace. I see similar end of terrace houses being marketed as semis. It's all just words really.

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