Window overlooking neighbours??

[puppylife]

I have attached some diagrams to attract comments 😬😬

Link detached houses, mine is the middle. I already have the single storey extension at the back and want to use the same footprint to make it a double extension. This makes a huge difference to the size of the bedrooms but will require a window to be put on the side of the house.

There are currently no windows on the sides of the link detached houses in my culde-sac, but there is upstairs hallway windows on the semi's across the road.

The window would be roughly in the middle of my house so although the view would be just the neighbours wall, is there any issues with doing this? I can't see it being able to overlook the garden but my partner seems to think it could affect us being able to sell later on with a window pointing at a wall.

Has anyone done a similar extension and can offer any insight or what else we could do? I would love to do what the neighbour ok the right has done but due to our eaves I don't think it would be possible.

Any advice, help, suggestions would be great 😊

It would need to be frosted glass.

I can never get my head around ‘link detached’.

sorry. Just makes me laugh every time I read it.

fraid I don’t know planning regs.

Ask your local authority planning officer if you d get planning for that if you were to apply. Usually for a fee they ll give you a general idea.

can't you have a window at the front or back, looking over your garden or the road? and leave a blank wall at the side.

I couldn't tell from your pictures where the proposed window will go

There are windows on the front and the back already, but because I would be putting a new bedroom on the back of the house I would need to reposition the current second bedrooms window to the side of it would have no window. In the first picture it's the red star on the left hand side of the house, roughly in the middle if that helps at all

I will definitely talk to building control, as there is already an extension I was hoping it wouldn't be planning permission just building regs. I was after some advice on whether it is vaguely likely to get approved as I really don't know enough about it, I didn't want to apply if it will just get rejected!

I viewed a house this week and didn't buy it for several reasons, but a key one was similar to your situation.

The loft extension window looked directly at the neighbour's wall. I could see that they had leaned out of the window and painted the neighbour's wall white(!!!!), just in the relevant patch, in order to make the room lighter but it was still ever so dark.

You'd likely need planning permission to build a first floor extension. And it may be difficult to get a window to a habitable room overlooking a neighbour. Not certain if frosted glass would cut it for a bedroom.

It isn't just as simple as putting another storey on the existing extension either, the foundations may not have been built to support an upper floor.

Have you spoken to an architect or an architectural technician about the layout?

Can't you put velux windows in your second bedroom instead of side windows?

They what???? 🙈

If there's any chance of overlooking from upstairs they would likely only allow windows above head height and/or roof lights. We had exactly the same and they specifically said in the approval that we couldn't add any new side windows without planning permission. We went for two roof lights on the sloping roof in the end.
Frosted glass is unlikely to satisfy as it's a quick and cheap job to remove or change it later.
The definitive answer would be from your planning application, which could be amended if they indicate it will be rejected.

There will be issues and expense with plumbing, but would this work instead? Frosted glass in a bathroom is normal so wouldn't look odd. I don't know how narrow this makes the two bedrooms though.

is there such a thing as "pre planning" that tells you whether it's likely to be allowed?

Have you spoken to an architect? They may be able to come up with a better idea. Your plans aren't very clear, but you don't seem to be able to access the end bedroom without going through the first one?
Windows facing onto a neighbour aren't usually viewed favourably unless at head height only. You may have an issue in the future if the ndn you would overlook decided to do a similar extension to the other one.

If the extension E is a bit smaller, bed 2 can keep a window. I'm assuming the bathroom shifts partially into the side extension that you also drew.

What has the neighbour on the other side had done? It looks like they’ve had a massive extension-do they have side windows overlooking you?

Do you have a good relationship with the neighbour on the left (the one the window would overlook?).

I’d agree with getting an architect and putting in an application- you may be able to get planning for a small/ frosted glass window but I don’t think anyone will guarantee it. And it may depend on how much of a fuss the person to the left makes and whether there’s a precedent. So I would definitely tell the neighbours what you’re planning and keep them onside if you can.

I also agree that the architect might be able to come up with a better plan which has the bathroom in the middle with skylights and the bedroom on the side/ in the new corner extension with a window facing into the garden.

I like what @parietal has suggested, although I would suggest moving your bathroom to the box room, and splitting the existing bathroom into an en suite and access to the extension bedroom.

Yep they have had a huge wrap around extensions, but they haven't moved any windows so none on the sides at all, this isn't possible for us due to how the eaves overhang the garages, they would be too close

Not spoken to anyone just yet, I have no idea what is possible and we are very much in the first stages of securing funds for this project and trying to work out what we could do so we at least had an idea to take to someone. We will definitely look at getting professionals to work out a plan, I was just hopi g someone had created a similar extension on a similar house that could share a floor plan of how they made it work.

Im would imagine a bathroom move would be a huge expense, the bathroom sits over the kitchen so there is no 'water' over that end of the house if that makes sense, I like the idea of staggering the wall at the back so the windows both remain at the back I just don't think the house is wide enough to have the bedrooms a decent size to accommodate this - if you look at the box room at the front of the house it barely fits a single bed in so the side is dead I ate my not wide enough for a bedroom really

It's looking like what I can picture in my head Ian no doable at all really, we can't go out to the right hand side with a double extension due to how the waves overhang the garage so that's not an option like the neighbours have done, i think we are going to be able to fit what we need in upstairs without the window on the side so it is back to the drawing board?

What is so unusual about the eaves?
I'm sure an architect would be able to come up with something.

I would get an architect, you’re racking your brains unnecessarily at this point. I do that, so it’s not a criticism, but I’ve learned not to invest hours of trying to invent something that someone else can do better already 🙂

I know what you mean, it's difficult not to try and plan it myself as I don't want to waste their time I guess!!