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?

If it's for your parents could you not demolish the garage and build a really high end garden room with heating and plumbing?

@HasaDigaEebowai

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.

Ooh, your extension sounds amazing, I'm sure it'll be fabulous once it's finished, good luck with the build!

@yourestandingonmyneck

If it's for your parents could you not demolish the garage and build a really high end garden room with heating and plumbing?

If I could, I would, but I'd be extremely unlikely to get planning permission to build an annexe of that nature, as my local authority don't allow it.

This extract is from their published Residential Extension Guidelines.