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Everybody loves good neighbours

“We know them really well, they’ll be fine with it”

That’s what I commonly hear when I ask how the neighbours will react to the plans for extending your home. It’s amazing how perception can sometimes be so far from reality and that’s why chumming up with your neighbours in advance of your building work is a strategic move.

Think about it, how would you feel if you saw your neighbours and their architect in the back garden waving their arms about, talking about building close to the boundary? You’d be twitching your metaphorical net curtains and perhaps rightly so. Generally people are resistant to change and predictably irrational if they don’t know what to expect.

Neighbours have the potential to make your journey from concept to completion a little bumpier that you might like, from Planning objections to Party Wall dissents they can throw more than a single spanner in the works. And whilst neighbourly Planning objections are sometimes discounted unless they’re made on policy grounds, it still doesn’t set you up for a very comfortable year ahead. Here are some tips on how to keep things on track:

5 Top Tips for Smooth Neighbourly Relations

  1. Inform them: well ahead of getting yourself an architect – let them know you’re thinking about extending, perhaps ask if they’ve also considered doing the same.
  2. Listen to them: are they concerned? If so, what in particular is an issue for them? When you come to appoint an architect, let them know about it so that they can consider how best to alleviate their concerns as well as meeting your brief.
  3. Share with them: once you’ve developed your ideas and have your plans ready – share with them, ahead of making a Planning application. There’s nothing neighbours like less than being ambushed. The local authority will let them know you’ve made an application, so get in before they hear it from somebody else.
  4. Involve them: dependent on the scale of proposals and whether it does impact them in anyway, you might consider tweaking your proposals a little in response to their concerns. I’ve had several meetings where getting client’s neighbours round for a cuppa has allowed us to mitigate any objections by simply taking their concerns on board in the first place.
  5. Manage their expectations: let them know when you anticipate the building work to be, let them know ahead of time that you’ll be sending a Party Wall Notice and what the process is.

It’s not about designing your extension by committee, and it’s not about foregoing your own aspirations to please the neighbours, but as with most things in life, communication is key to success.

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Reconnecting with the Garden and Disguising the Old as New

A familiar story…

Living in a house subjected to piecemeal development over the years, the key consideration for this family was in unlocking the back of the house to once again connect with the garden. It’s a common problem where properties have already been developed, and for this project in particular the requirement to retain one of the existing extensions brought with it an added challenge, but one that ultimately gave it its character.

Three years ago I was approached by a lovely family of four, who came to me with their tired conservatory that doubled as a playroom, and in many ways blocked their access to the garden. It was a space rarely used, always too hot or too cold, a bit of a no man’s land, very much in the way. For them it required a concerted effort to get out to the garden; especially challenging with kids.

  • Tired and piecemeal development
  • Simple form and contrasting materials
Before and after

A plan for contemporary living

Their vision was to create a versatile family room, open plan to the kitchen and dining area, and to re-establish the link between the house and the garden. It would be a space for hanging out together, for music, for kids’ homework and for getting outdoors again. Adding a significant amount of floor space to their 1930’s home, the new extension would infill the gap alongside the existing extension that had been tacked on 20 years previous. This, already containing a ground floor bedroom and bathroom, too valuable for family visitors to do away with – so it had to be retained and worked around.

  • Sketch plan layout
  • Curved glass flat rooflights
  • Versatile bright family room
From concept to completion

Delivering through design

The proposals set out to reconnect the house and garden and re-worked the circulation to the spare room, streamlining the kitchen layout. The island, which is actually not an island at all, delineates the kitchen zone whilst maintaining the visual connection right through the new space to the garden beyond. Using several large rooflights to ensure that good daylighting could penetrate the deep plan layout, the resulting spaces are bright even on a dull day. Amalgamating a series of existing roof forms into one flat roof, and with new cedar cladding across the elevation we were able to disguise the existing extension as though it were all one congruent form. The cladding, our solution to cloaking the old, brings the extension a character its own that will evolve as the seasons weather the boarding to a silvery grey. Roof trim and rainwater goods were colour matched to the new doors, and the existing window also replaced, to achieve a cohesive contemporary appearance across the new and old.

  • Existing extension to be retained
  • Existing extension overclad to match
Before and after

Changing family life for the better

Delighted with their new space and restored connection with the garden, the extension offers so much flexibility to a growing family. Opening onto the raised terrace with built in planters along the edge- their dream of indoor-outdoor living is becoming a reality. As is always the case relationships are key to project success and it was a pleasure to facilitate their vision: “we were complete novices to the process but Carly’s personal approach and excellent communication made the daunting job very manageable”.

Reconnecting with nature, a room with a view

This project was completed in Summer 2019 and built by Macbeth and Co. Building Services.

If you’re feeling inspired to reconnect with your garden then download my Project Planner to start thinking about the problems you’re looking to solve and explore the potential of your home.