NEIGHBOURS of a retired couple who let Virginia creeper cover every inch of their house worry about damage the plant may be causing.
Sean Jones, 44, says everyone loves to look at the five-leaved ivy on the home next door – but he has concerns it’s covering up potential problems.
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Michael and Teresa Lye moved into their Bromley home in South East London nearly four decades ago and used to control the leaves growing down the front.
Over time, however, they gave up and found that in winter, it was a good way to warm their home.
Sean thinks the plant might be getting in between the slates on the roof but because he lives in a council house he isn’t too worried.
When asked if he thinks it’s providing insulation, he said: “I think it’s doing more damage than insulation.
“Only an expert would know if it was going in the cavities. I can imagine it’s a bit more of a worry if it is affecting the cavities.
“It gets to a certain length every year and turns brown in the autumn. I don’t know if he has had any issues, it’s blocking the light maybe.”
He said he saw photos of the house on a local Facebook group and was surprised to see that people were taking an interest in the house all of a sudden.
Sean said: “Someone had put up a picture and the daughter tagged her dad who lives next door and I was like, this has just come out of nowhere.”
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“I can tell when I speak to him that he’s proud of it, they both are.
“It’s a focal point for people who are not from this area and they are like, wow, but I can tell that underneath, he is worried that there is some damage because he owns the house and selling it might reveal some structural damage.
“I would be surprised if there was not some cavity damage.”
Although he’s worried about the potential to cause a headache, Sean says it makes for a wonderful attraction on the street.
He said: “They get a lot of people stopping to take pictures. It is pretty. Even when it has dropped off.”
“It’s beautiful but I don’t really notice it anymore.
“We moved here in 1987 and it was like that then. Because it’s there every day you don’t really focus on it.”
The upstairs of Sean’s house was also covered in Virginia creeper as the building joins onto his neighbours’.
He said: “We keep the windows shut upstairs. It does affect the light in our bedroom. If you left the window open for two days then it would start creeping in a bit.
“They are lovely neighbours, I don’t have a bad word to say about them. Even if it is going in the windows, we wouldn’t complain because they are such nice people. And as you can see, our hedge is growing over to their side too.”
Other neighbours also said they liked the way the house looked, but they would prefer to not have anything similar on their own house.
Amadeu Avi, 36, a data analyst who lives down the street said: “It looks cool, but I probably wouldn’t live there because of all the insects and spiders it would attract in the summer.
“I would love to have a garden as nice as my neighbours’ but I do not think I would do it because it would attract too many insects and birds.
“I am saving up for solar panels so that would be my choice of being sustainable rather than having that.”
Naveen Durairaj, 36, who moved into a neighbouring house from India two months ago, said: “I like it, it’s good.
“I showed my relatives from back home on a video call. They were happy, they said it is good.
“Most of the people from back home said it is good.”
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