Morning all!
We will shortly be building a rear extension on our house, in place of the existing conservatory. It's 3m deep and is being done as a permitted development. Our neighbours are pretty unhappy about this and say they will oppose it. I've tried to politely explain that as a PD we can build it any way but am looking for any suggestions that I can use to make the impact less 'devastating' in their eyes. We get on well with them and are likely to be living to here for a while so don't really want to start antagonising them if possible.
The main problem being that the new extension will be higher than the existing conservatory and so it will cut out some light from their house (there is already a 3m extension to the house on the other side but they will now be getting more enclosed). The neighbours were happy(ish) when they thought that it would be the same dimensions as the conservatory but I have tried to explain this is impossible unless we want an extension with a 6' ceiling height!
So far the only thing I can think of to reduce the impact is rendering the side and painting it brilliant white to help reflect some light back in. I was also wondering if there is instead maybe some sort of wood cladding or similar material that could be used to lessen the impact? While this wouldn't make it any lighter it may make it more natural looking.
The architect has also said that if necessary we can reduce the roof pitch from 17° to 15° but that we would then need to use special concrete interlocking tiles and would be limiting our roof covering choices. I want to try to avoid this if possible. Cost will be an issue in this as budget is tight so if I can't do something relatively cheaply i'll just have to build it as it is anyway but would like to avoid this if possible!
We will shortly be building a rear extension on our house, in place of the existing conservatory. It's 3m deep and is being done as a permitted development. Our neighbours are pretty unhappy about this and say they will oppose it. I've tried to politely explain that as a PD we can build it any way but am looking for any suggestions that I can use to make the impact less 'devastating' in their eyes. We get on well with them and are likely to be living to here for a while so don't really want to start antagonising them if possible.
The main problem being that the new extension will be higher than the existing conservatory and so it will cut out some light from their house (there is already a 3m extension to the house on the other side but they will now be getting more enclosed). The neighbours were happy(ish) when they thought that it would be the same dimensions as the conservatory but I have tried to explain this is impossible unless we want an extension with a 6' ceiling height!
So far the only thing I can think of to reduce the impact is rendering the side and painting it brilliant white to help reflect some light back in. I was also wondering if there is instead maybe some sort of wood cladding or similar material that could be used to lessen the impact? While this wouldn't make it any lighter it may make it more natural looking.
The architect has also said that if necessary we can reduce the roof pitch from 17° to 15° but that we would then need to use special concrete interlocking tiles and would be limiting our roof covering choices. I want to try to avoid this if possible. Cost will be an issue in this as budget is tight so if I can't do something relatively cheaply i'll just have to build it as it is anyway but would like to avoid this if possible!
