How important is side access?

[Starseeking]

I'm currently buying a semi-detached house at the top of my budget.

It is the standard 1930's semi, so there are 2 double bedrooms and one single, plus a family bathroom upstairs. There is also a garage behind the house, plus a 70ft garden.

There's about 2.5-3m (measured with my eyes!) of space at the side of the house, in which I'd want to build both a double storey plus rear extension to create an extra bedroom and shower room upstairs, then granny annex, utility and kitchen/diner downstairs.

To maximise the house footprint, I'd need to go up to the boundary, but feel uncomfortable about losing the side access to the garden to do so. Am I being irrational, or is side access really important?

Terraces manage because they usually have access to the garden at the back

That’s rare in London.

OP it really depends on your lifestyle and size of garden I think. We’re mid terrace, only access through the house and it’s not a problem for us (and doesn’t seem to be for anyone else we know in a similar position).

We have a small garden, so there isn’t a lot of garden waste, including fake grass so no grass cuttings! We have a bike/scooter locker at the front of the house to save carrying them through and we got the nicest looking bins we could find for out the front (no wheelies here unfortunately).

Works for us but wouldn’t suit everyone.

We built over the side access to our semi. Most houses have a compromise and side access was ours. We have subsequently built a second rear extension and a 4x7m garden room. You do need to think about access routes - double doors etc - up front as others have said.

I've attached my ideal ground floor plan; the extension is the section to the left of the front door and porch.

If I incorporate some of the suggestions regarding creating a concealed walkway at the front through to the back, I'll lose the downstairs bedroom for my parents, as the space would become too narrow.

Any ideas for how I could create a bedroom downstairs AND keep side access???

Terraces manage because they usually have access to the garden at the back.

I don't. I've got a steep railway cutting.

Are your parents going to be actually living there or just need the room for visit? That set up with the double bed against the wall really isn't great for more than the occasional night, no fun for either occupant if the one nearest the wall needs to get up in the night to go to the bathroom.

I'd be inclined to put the bedroom where the snug is shown, have the front of the extension as a smaller study with corridor on the boundary side, smaller cloakroom (accessed from hall as shown) with corridor behind, into walkthrough utility into the kitchen keeping that side of the kitchen clear as a walkthrough to the back door. Knock through the kitchen / study to make a larger kitchen/diner/snug across the back of the house.

That assumes you are allowed two doors though. If not that won't work.

@EverythingDelegated

Are your parents going to be actually living there or just need the room for visit? That set up with the double bed against the wall really isn't great for more than the occasional night, no fun for either occupant if the one nearest the wall needs to get up in the night to go to the bathroom.

I'd be inclined to put the bedroom where the snug is shown, have the front of the extension as a smaller study with corridor on the boundary side, smaller cloakroom (accessed from hall as shown) with corridor behind, into walkthrough utility into the kitchen keeping that side of the kitchen clear as a walkthrough to the back door. Knock through the kitchen / study to make a larger kitchen/diner/snug across the back of the house.

Thanks for your suggestions, these are great ideas. The main issue though, is my parents downstairs bedroom.

Initially my parents will likely stay once or twice a week (they live about 15 minutes away), but as they get older, I'll expect it'll be easier for us all if they move in permanently so I can help them.

The snug is on the side with the adjoined neighbour, so there's no window in that room, and no natural daylight. To counteract that, I was planning to put some large crittall windows between the snug and the study with blinds which can be opened and closed as necessary.

If I move the bedroom where the snug is, there'd be no natural daylight, and my parents may not want their bedroom on show to me in the study! It might work though, so I'll see what the architect says.

I have tricky side access at the moment (mid terrace) and I long for nice straight forward side access. You would regret it in my opinion as DC get old with bikes etc.

I’d build a garage on the side with up and over doors both ends, so you can get through, and use the upstairs for the extension.
I wouldn’t buy a house with no side access, do you need to think about selling on too.

How about the bedroom where the living room is then? With the room marked snug now as a living room in the middle with the window through to the snug/diner/kitchen at the back, maybe take a bit more living room from the wider part of the hall, put in a glass door to the hall if you want it to be closeable.

We don’t use the side access much, but it would be a total pain without it, when we moved in the chest freezer came in that way, when we had our garden room built that also went through the side access, as did our new oven, just too big to come through the front door. Think carefully OP. Good luck with your move.

@EverythingDelegated

How about the bedroom where the living room is then? With the room marked snug now as a living room in the middle with the window through to the snug/diner/kitchen at the back, maybe take a bit more living room from the wider part of the hall, put in a glass door to the hall if you want it to be closeable.

That idea would work actually, although it would mean me giving up any notions of having a lovely formal living room with bay window at the front of the house (sob).

I'll rethink the layout of the extension side as if I do the above, potentially that could be halved to keep side access, then use the remaining bit as shower room (opposite the new downstairs bedroom which replaces the living room, and put the utility behind that leading to the kitchen diner area.

Upstairs will now need rejigging as I was aiming to create an extra bedroom, plus shower room, however that may be a bit ambitious.

I suppose you have to ask which takes priority for the outside window, the living room which will be used every day by the whole household or a bedroom just used at night once or twice a week? You could curtain off the window through to the back room.

Depends if you're planning on selling in future I guess. I'd never even consider viewing a house without proper access to the back garden, even if it was otherwise perfect. We use our side gate off the drive daily, for bringing bikes in and out, we have a lot of garden waste to bring round, etc etc. Plus I wouldn't want to have to be in everytime the window cleaner, lawn treatment company etc are round, and have them traipsing through the house.

Of course as pp said some people are fine with this, but for a lot of people it would definitely be a deal breaker when looking to buy.

I wouldn't, I had one, nightmare even though we had alley access the other side. Also don't buy a house relying on planning because it might get refused

As a pp said, think about light. The area where you have the snug will be very dark and even with glass doors between the study and the snug, it'll be really dark. Also, that furniture looks completely wrong (e.g. the size of the double bed in the downstairs bedroom). That simply can't be right when you look at the dimensions.

Also think about what you'll actually end up with in terms of space, even if you lose side access.

We have 2.75cm between our house and the boundary. You have to leave a bit of a gap so that your gutters / pipes etc don't overhang the boundary (and trespass into next door). Say that gap is 10cm, that brings you don't to 2.65cm. The thickness of an outdoor wall is 30cm so now you're down to 2.35cm. Its do-able with a double bed but it won't be roomy.

@Africa2go

As a pp said, think about light. The area where you have the snug will be very dark and even with glass doors between the study and the snug, it'll be really dark. Also, that furniture looks completely wrong (e.g. the size of the double bed in the downstairs bedroom). That simply can't be right when you look at the dimensions.

Also think about what you'll actually end up with in terms of space, even if you lose side access.

We have 2.75cm between our house and the boundary. You have to leave a bit of a gap so that your gutters / pipes etc don't overhang the boundary (and trespass into next door). Say that gap is 10cm, that brings you don't to 2.65cm. The thickness of an outdoor wall is 30cm so now you're down to 2.35cm. Its do-able with a double bed but it won't be roomy.

Indeed, lots to think about.

The width of the extension on my floor plan is 2.15m, with the bed 1.8m, so slightly bigger than king size.

I hadn't factored any measurements in for the outside wall thickness; shows how much I know about extensions

To be honest based on feedback from here, rather than extending the house in 2 years, and losing side access, I'll probably end up moving in 5 years, and just having to live with the things that aren't so great about the house in the meantime.

In 5 years, I'll be able to build up substantial savings, so will hopefully be able to buy a ready made version of what I was trying to create with this, plus retain that all important side access!

Also the current next door neighbour has built up to the boundary with a ground floor flat roof extension. The gutters of that structure hang over my property, so that was a discussion about party walls that I really wasn't looking forward to.

We are building at the moment. You need about 350mm for double block with cavity plus plaster finishing.

This is my boot room space. Its internal measurement is 2200mm so pretty much what you’d be left with. There’s no way you’d have a double bed in it. I’ve put a brick there to give you an idea of size.

This boot room is 2200 x 50000

We had no side access in our last house and it was a fecking pain in the arse. Even just taking the bins out was a bloody job of work.

We now have side access and it's the best!

Thanks @HasaDigaEebowai.

A standard UK king size bed is 1.5m wide, so one would defined fit in that room with the headboard to your back wall, there just wouldn't be much room to walk around it. That and I appreciate I'd be asking two pensioners to be climbing on and off the foot end, so it's probably not the greatest idea!

P.S. What are you currently building overall? If your boot room is that size, your extension must be huge!

I live in a terrace with no access to my garden other than through the house. Wish I'd thought about that properly before buying because it is a PITA.

This is what a similar house nearby has done, which would be the end result if I went ahead.

They secured planning permission for this in 2013 though, before the rules changed. Gah!

Just measured my king sized bed and its 1.6m wide. Then add a bit for quilt. There’s no space to get around it and it would look very cramped IMO. Obviously a double is a bit smaller but your floorplan plan isn’t really indicative of the space you’ll have to play with.

We’re in the middle of a large project to answer your question. New boot room, new kitchen extension to double the size of the kitchen, converting our double attached garage and building a new detached garage. Then internally we’ve created a new pantry, separate laundry room and a separate gym. Its a big property at about 500sq metres so the spaces are all quite roomy but its set on a very large plot of a good few acres which can take a big house.