I live in a lovely mature cul-de-sac of 12 similarly designed large "Tudor-style" detached houses with dark hardwood windows, doors and cladding on the masonry. It was mandatory that the houses complied with a "Tudor- style" design when they were built, and this colour scheme has been maintained by all for years.
Now, windows are needing replacement and four neighbours have installed new windows and doors in varying fashionable colours, which are nice individually but completely different from the original look. They are maintenance-free so will not be repainted. There is no going back.
As more houses will need refurbishment, the maintenance-free option is appealing but the timber effect UPVC is not to everyone’s taste. Suppliers say it is unpopular, old-fashioned and people don’t want to spend a lot of money on something they don’t like. Alu clad seems to be popular and available in every RAL colour.
Will all the varying colours take away from the overall attractiveness of our lovely road? Is it likely that colours in fashion now may look dated in future? Is it okay to remove some of the cladding? There is no management company to give guidelines, and nobody wants to cause ill feelings.
Have you any advice on how to keep our road looking nice without becoming overly colourful or twee? There must be lots of similarly styled developments that would welcome your advice.
When you say “mature”, I am assuming that the estate is perhaps pre-1964 and so the “mandatory” compliance you refer to may not be a planning condition or requirement. Rather, the control has been placed as a caveat within the deeds of the properties, so control is possibly legally unenforceable at this stage, and this has allowed without recourse the current variances you report.
As you suggest, there may be no going back, so perhaps an effective way to progress matters might be to form a residents group to discuss and agree how best collectively you all might proceed with ongoing maintenance and repair in order that the general ambience and equity in the estate is preserved.
The local planning authority might be prepared to assist you, but only if it considers the estate’s original design meritorious to the locality and worthy of preservation. Otherwise, it is unlikely it will engage unless “material” planning changes are proposed to individual homes. So you might then seek to engage a design consultant to provide suggestions and draw up a strategy based upon the original ethos.
Because visual amenity is often a matter of personal preference, one might again assume the owners chose their homes because of the original overall “look” of the estate, and you will have that in common. An outside consultant can help preserve the visual amenity and resist owners who might seek to introduce clashing colours by reminding them of their original reasons in choosing their home.
A consensus of owners coming together can assist social cohesion so that the ill feelings you suggest might be readily overcome.
Often, however, there is one person who will not readily engage, so again an outside consultant might be helpful to lower resistance and negotiate equable solutions.
There are many types of windows and claddings available, so a collective research under guidance might assist to identify the most appropriate items. Once done, negotiations with suppliers might garner shared savings or economies.
Maintenance decisions are often made on foot of sales techniques by suppliers or contractors who have a conflicting interest in persuading that their solution is “the next best thing” or the most efficacious. However, in my experience alternative holistic solutions that preserve and enhance existing parts of a home may provide a better answer to wholesale change of items that at first glance are past their best.
There is little money in that for most contractors, so the best advice might be to seek alternatives from a professionall adviser who will understand a wider range of possibilities to preserve your estate.
