Garden Walls Stockton | Stockton Patios

Example image: a curved low red-brick wall with a stone coping forming a raised bed beside a sandstone patio

The walls people ask for

Patio edge walls. A few courses of brick or stone along the side of a patio, often with a flat coping wide enough to sit on.
Raised beds. Brick, block or stone, filled with soil. Easier on the back and they give the garden some shape.
Retaining walls. Where a garden's been levelled, say to fit a flat patio on a slope, a retaining wall holds the higher ground back.
Dwarf walls and dividers. Low walls separating the patio from the lawn or marking out a seating area.

Most are built to match the house brick, which on the older streets of Stockton and Norton is usually red brick, or to match the patio stone, then capped with a coping that throws the rain off.

What goes into a wall that lasts

A concrete footing that's wide and deep enough for the height and the ground. Clay needs it deeper.
Level, straight courses with fully filled joints.
A damp-proof course and a coping, so water doesn't soak down through the wall and blow the bricks in a frost.
Drainage behind a retaining wall. Wet soil pushes hard. Free-draining backfill and weep holes let the water out. Taller retaining walls need proper design, and we'll tell you if yours is one of them.

Example image: a brick retaining wall with weep holes and a stone coping holding back a raised lawn

Planning and neighbours

You can usually build a garden wall without planning permission if it's no higher than 1 metre next to a road used by vehicles (including the pavement beside it), or 2 metres anywhere else. Listed buildings and conservation areas, such as parts of Norton and Yarm, have tighter rules. If the wall is on or next to the boundary with a neighbour, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 may apply, so have a word with them early.

Walls as part of a bigger job

Most walls go in at the same time as a new patio, steps or a levelled garden. Pricing it all together means levels, materials and drainage get planned as one, and it's usually less disruption than doing it bit by bit.

Questions people ask

Do I need planning permission for a garden wall?

Not usually, as long as it's under 1m next to a road used by vehicles or 2m elsewhere, and the house isn't listed. If in doubt, check with Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, or Durham County Council if you're in Sedgefield.

Brick or stone?

Brick that matches the house generally looks the most natural. Stone suits natural stone patios and older properties. We can bring samples when we come out.

Can an old wall be repaired?

Often. Cracked or crumbling walls can sometimes be repointed or partly rebuilt. A wall that leans because the footing has failed usually needs taking down and building again.