Hi all looking for some advice and clarification on the law surrounding decking not being 30cm higher than garden level.
A bit of background. We live on a hill, so we and our attached neighbours houses', ground floor rooms are higher than the garden-so you have to step down into the garden from the house.
We are having a single storey wrap around extension built. From the back of the house we are building out 3 meters and are having 4 meter wide bifolds as part of the work.
My question relates to decking and the 30cm rule about not building higher than 30cm above existing garden. The drop from our bifolds at floor level to garden level at lowest point in garden will be approx. 45cm. Due to the hill we are on, when you look out the back of our property the garden on the right is marginally higher than the ground on the left, as it slopes upwards.
Ideally we would like to build decking steps the width of the bifolds, that will lead down to patio at the current level of the existing lower part of the garden. The steps would only be wide enough to use as steps and would not enable anyone to sit in a chair on them-so would not be a platform. If we start the first step at level of bifold, you would walk out on first step at same level as ground floor and then there would be two additional steps down to the patio. This means the top step would be approx. 45cm up from lowest point I garden.
My question is, do decking steps fall under the same rules as decking platforms?
It’s worth noting that when we stand where our bifolds will be, we cannot see into our neighbours garden as we have paid for the highest fence we could without planning and their garden is lower than ours. But we have no desire to break the law or cause ourselves problems in the future and we are keen to also preserve our neighbour's privacy too.
So can we start the steps at 45cm, so we can walk out onto the first step at ground floor level or would we need to step down from bifolds meaning first step would be 30cm from current lowest point in garden?
I hope the above makes sense
Thank you
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Property/DIY
Decking steps v platform 30cm rule
5 replies
poobumwee · 26/05/2018 17:59
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