Wear-bank levels in Durham

Durham is a valley city. The Wear loops under the peninsula and the houses climb both sides. A garden on that bank is rarely one level from the back door to the fence. Our team sets deck levels to that fact. The work is framing, posts and ventilated boards. It is not a matter of burying the slope under a single raised tray and hoping the edge looks low from the house.

The bank, not a flat lawn

Stand at the door and again at the bottom fence. The difference is the job. A gentle fall can be one deck, kept within 30 cm of the ground along its length, with the boards following a shallow plane. A steep fall cannot. The uphill edge may touch the soil while the downhill edge is at chest height. That structure is a raised deck, whatever the uphill edge suggests, and it needs designing as one: guarding, bracing, and a planning position that may no longer be permitted development.

We would rather break the fall into platforms. An upper deck at the door, where people step out. A lower deck where the garden wants a second place to stand. Steps between them, with equal rises. Each platform is judged against the ground next to it. Split-level decks is the build. Witton Gilbert shows the same thinking in the Browney valley, where the slope is real and the river at the foot of the bank is not always the Wear.

The edge with the view is often the high one. We guard it if the drop needs it, and we do not cantilever boards past a post that can be founded properly.

Setting the levels

We take levels from a fixed point at the door, then down the garden at the corners of each proposed platform. Posts are cut to those figures, not to an average. An average buries the uphill joist and leaves the downhill one waving. Footings are individual. The BGS Geology Viewer shows the mapped ground of the valley, which changes from the top of a bank to the bottom. Trial holes confirm it. Leaf mould is not a footing.

Water and air share the void. Boards fall so rain leaves them, and the void stays open so the bank can dry. On the uphill side the lawn wants to creep into the frame. We stop that with a clear edge and a membrane, and we leave the downhill side open, where the frame is highest and the breeze can enter. Boxing a bank deck in is how it stays wet. The ventilation guide is the detail, and it matters more on a shaded north bank than on a sunny south one.

We do not publish a flood zone for "the banks". Some houses are high above the river. Some gardens run down towards it. The flood map for planning is the check for the postcode, and it governs how we think about a lower platform. It does not replace the measured fall.

Height, guarding and permission

The Planning Portal figure of 30 cm is above the ground, and on a slope the ground moves. We apply it honestly to each platform. If a part of the deck is higher than that above the ground beside it, we do not call the whole thing permitted development. For a house, the other tests remain: no more than half the garden with other buildings, and nothing forward of the front wall. A long bank garden can absorb area. A short one, already terraced by previous owners, may not.

A low platform needs no rail. A high downhill edge needs a rail built into the frame. Steps get an even going, and a landing at the door if the flight starts immediately outside.

Conservation areas cover much of the city's historic sides, and the peninsula is both heavily designated and a World Heritage Site. The peninsula guide handles that setting. A bank further out may be ordinary. We check the address. Listed status is an address check too. We never decide it from a view of the Wear.

What the visit is for

Bring the postcode and say which way the garden falls. We still measure the drop. On a bank the way in may be a path from below or a tight passage at the side.

The quote names the number of levels, the steps, the guarding if any, and the ventilation. It does not offer one deck for every Wear-side garden. Neville's Cross and the villages up the valley each have their own version of this slope. Ask for a quote when you want it measured. If the honest design needs permission, that is the first line of the conversation, not a footnote.

FAQ