Who is responsible for a wall between two gardens?

There is no general rule that you own the wall on the left or the right. The title deeds for your house, or for your neighbour's, may say who owns a boundary or who has to maintain it, and you can get a copy from HM Land Registry. If the deeds say nothing, the two owners need to agree between them. We need to know whose wall it is before we start, so it is worth settling first.

Do I have to tell my neighbour before a wall is built on the boundary?

If the wall will stand on the boundary line itself, or you are working on a garden wall that sits across both properties, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 can apply, and it requires written notice to the neighbour before work starts. GOV.UK has a plain guide to party walls and building work. A wall built wholly on your own side is your own business, though a word over the fence first never hurts.

My garden wall is leaning. Is it safe to leave?

Do not assume so. Garden walls are among the commonest kinds of masonry to collapse, and the owner is responsible for keeping one safe. Look for a lean you can see by eye, cracks running through the bricks or along the joints, a top course that rocks when pushed, or a tree root lifting the base. Any of those is worth a look before the winter, sooner if the wall is beside a pavement or somewhere children play.

Can you add height to a wall that is already there?

Sometimes. It depends on the wall underneath: how thick it is, what state the joints are in and what it is standing on. A wall that was sound at knee height may not be at head height, because the wind has far more to push against. The planning height limits count the finished wall, old and new together.

Can a garden wall be built in winter?

Yes, with care. Mortar must not be laid in frost, because it can freeze before it has set and the joint never gains its strength. Heavy rain is the other problem, as it washes fresh joints out and stains the face. So winter work is planned around the forecast and new work is covered overnight, which can make a job take longer than it would in June.

Sandstone wall and capped pier beside a tree, with the path edged in new concrete

Garden and boundary walls

Garden wall builders in Barnsley

We build garden walls, boundary walls and retaining walls in and around Barnsley, in brick or natural stone, and we rebuild the ones that have come down. Harry or Josh comes out, looks at the wall and tells you what it needs and what it will cost. The quote is free.

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What do we take on as garden wall builders in Barnsley?

Garden wall work comes down to four kinds of job.

A new wall. Along the front, down a side boundary or round a raised bed, in facing brick or natural stone.
A rebuild. A wall that has leaned, cracked or come down, taken back to sound work and built up again to match what is left.
A retaining wall. One that holds ground back on a sloping garden, which is a different piece of work from a wall that only marks a line.
Piers and cappings. Gate piers, brick pillars, and the coping or cap that finishes the top of a wall.

Harry is a Level 2 qualified bricklayer, trained by his grandad from a young age, and we are fully insured. Every photograph on this page is one of our own jobs.

A wall that came down, built back to match

As we found it: the corner down across the path.
Built back in coursed sandstone, up to the same gatepost.

Can a collapsed garden wall be rebuilt to match the rest?

Usually, yes. When part of a wall falls, the rest of the run is often still sound, so the job is to take the damaged end back to solid work and build up from there in the same material, the same course heights and the same joint. Stone or brick from the fallen section can often go back in once it has been cleaned off, which is the surest way to get a match.

The wall at number 3 is our own example. A sandstone garden wall had dropped at the corner and spilled across the path. It went back up coursed to line through with the wall either side, tight to the original gatepost. You can see the whole job on our work page.

If yours has come down next to a path or a pavement, keep people away from what is still standing until someone has looked at it. A wall that has lost one section can lose the next.

Brick or natural stone?

	Brick	Natural stone
Where it suits	Brick-built houses and newer streets, where the wall should read as part of the house	Stone-built houses and older boundaries, where brick would look like a patch
What has to match	Brick colour and size, the bond and the joint	The type of stone, the height of the courses and how the face is dressed
How the top is finished	A stone or concrete coping, or a course of bricks laid on edge	Flat stone copings, with a cap on each pier
From our own jobs	A red brick garden wall with a band of blue bricks under a stone coping	A low coursed sandstone wall finished with a square capped pier

How is a garden wall built so it stays up?

The footing
A wall is only as good as what it sits on. The trench goes down to firm ground and is filled with concrete. How deep and how wide depends on the ground, the height of the wall and what is growing nearby, trees especially.
Setting out and the first courses
The line and the levels are fixed before a brick is laid. On a slope the wall normally steps down in level sections instead of following the fall of the ground.
Piers
A long or tall wall needs piers at intervals to stiffen it against the wind. Long runs of brickwork also need a movement joint here and there, so the wall can expand and shrink with the weather without cracking.
Building up
Straight courses and full joints, in the bond that suits the wall. On a rebuild, the new courses are lined through with the old ones.
The coping
The top of a wall takes the worst of the weather. A coping or cap throws the rain clear, which is what stops the top courses breaking up in the frost.
Pointing and cleaning down
Joints finished to match, the face brushed off, and the site cleared before we leave.

New walls and piers

A new boundary wall going up at Oxspring, with piers along the run.
Red brick with a blue band and a stone coping.
A low sandstone garden wall with a square pier.
A buff brick gate pier with a stone cap.

What makes a retaining wall different?

A garden wall stands on its own. A retaining wall has soil pushing against one side of it, and wet soil pushes a good deal harder than dry. So it is built thicker for its height, on a bigger footing, and it needs a way for water to get out: free-draining stone behind the wall and weep holes through the face, so the ground cannot fill up like a bath after rain.

A low wall round a raised lawn is everyday work. A taller one, or one holding up a drive, a path or the ground under a neighbour's fence, may need a structural engineer to design it first. We will tell you which yours is when we see it.

Do you build gate piers and brick pillars?

Yes. A pier at a gateway, a pair of pillars at the end of a drive, or a pier added to stiffen the end of an existing wall. A pier that carries a gate has to take the weight and the swing of it, so it is built to suit the gate, with a cap on top to keep the water out. Porch piers come under repairs and repointing.

Do you need planning permission for a garden wall?

Often not. In England you can normally build or alter a garden wall without applying, as long as it is no more than one metre high where it is next to a road used by vehicles or the pavement of that road, and no more than two metres high anywhere else. The Planning Portal sets the rule out in full.

There are exceptions. A listed building, or a wall on the boundary with one, needs permission. In a conservation area you may need consent to take an old wall down. And some newer estates were approved with a condition that removes the right to enclose a front garden at all. If you are not sure, Barnsley Council's planning team can tell you before you spend anything.

What moves the price of a garden wall?

We do not publish prices, because two walls of the same length can be very different jobs. What we look at on the visit: how long and how high it is, whether it is brick or stone, how thick it has to be, what the ground is like for the footing, whether an old wall has to come down and be taken away first, how easy it is to get materials to it, and how many piers and what sort of coping it has. Send a few photos on WhatsApp first and we can often give you a rough idea before we come out.

How do you get a garden wall priced?

Ring Harry on 07712 491089, send photos on WhatsApp to the same number, or use the quote form on this page. One of us comes to see the wall, and the price you get is for that wall, with no obligation. If you are having the garden done at the same time, we also lay patios and garden steps, and a wall and a patio built together can share the same brick or stone.

Garden wall questions

Who is responsible for a wall between two gardens?
There is no general rule that you own the wall on the left or the right. The title deeds for your house, or for your neighbour's, may say who owns a boundary or who has to maintain it, and you can get a copy from HM Land Registry. If the deeds say nothing, the two owners need to agree between them. We need to know whose wall it is before we start, so it is worth settling first.
Do I have to tell my neighbour before a wall is built on the boundary?
If the wall will stand on the boundary line itself, or you are working on a garden wall that sits across both properties, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 can apply, and it requires written notice to the neighbour before work starts. GOV.UK has a plain guide to party walls and building work. A wall built wholly on your own side is your own business, though a word over the fence first never hurts.
My garden wall is leaning. Is it safe to leave?
Do not assume so. Garden walls are among the commonest kinds of masonry to collapse, and the owner is responsible for keeping one safe. Look for a lean you can see by eye, cracks running through the bricks or along the joints, a top course that rocks when pushed, or a tree root lifting the base. Any of those is worth a look before the winter, sooner if the wall is beside a pavement or somewhere children play.
Can you add height to a wall that is already there?
Sometimes. It depends on the wall underneath: how thick it is, what state the joints are in and what it is standing on. A wall that was sound at knee height may not be at head height, because the wind has far more to push against. The planning height limits count the finished wall, old and new together.
Can a garden wall be built in winter?
Yes, with care. Mortar must not be laid in frost, because it can freeze before it has set and the joint never gains its strength. Heavy rain is the other problem, as it washes fresh joints out and stains the face. So winter work is planned around the forecast and new work is covered overnight, which can make a job take longer than it would in June.

Got a wall that needs putting back?

Tell us about the job. We'll ring to arrange a time, come out, and price it on site. Free, and no obligation.

Get a free quote 07712 491089 WhatsApp a photo

Fully insured, no matter how big or small the job.