Side returners - how high is your party wall?

[tpmumtobe]

Our neighbours are about to start building a side return extension. We're also planning one in the next couple of years, but not ready to proceed just yet.

To give us options in the long run we're agreeing to them building the new party wall along the boundary. But because their house sits lower down than ours their current proposed wall height would only give us about a 2m high wall on our side.

So we can avoid having to add onto it in the future (which might be a nightmare with the extra top bit not being insulated and overshadowing their roof) they've said that as long as we're prepared to accept (ie consent in writing) the loss of light to our kitchen windows in the short term, they can build it higher now, potentially up to 3m.

How high do we actually need it to be? I understand the legal minimum is 2m? Our current kitchen ceiling is about 2.3m so I guess it needs to be at least as high as that?

We need to find a balance so that it's high enough for what we need in terms of a side return long term, but not SO massive that it makes our kitchen feel like prison in the meantime, especially because there is a chance might never actually do our build so it needs to be livable either way

Anyone got a side return with a relatively short party wall? Do you wish it was taller?

Thanks!

I’ve seen one at ~2m internal height, with sloped glazing up to the original ceiling height. Looked pretty good actually - and had kitchen units along the wall, so you would never be stood directly under the lowest part.

You really need to first decide on what sort of roof you would want - both material and flat vs sloped - that will largely determine how much height you need.

Ideally we'd want the roof to be glass and sloping but I expect in reality the budget won't stretch so it'll be more like roof lights.
But that's a good point about having the units under the lowest part so you're never stood there, that at least gives us workable options if it does end up not as tall as we'd hoped, thanks.

Are they going to finish the party wall as a parapet to avoid guttering trespass? In which case it'd be easy to extend up in future.

Don't let their guttering come over to your side. It is trespass.

Ensure the foundations are designed to cope with a 3m wall though. Get design and evidence (pictures) of foundation documented. Also in the party wall agreement ensure the right of extension (higher) and enclosure is documented.

@Rollercoaster1920 not sure of the technical term but yes a parapet would describe what they're proposing. The wall will be a bit higher on our side with a shared gutter down the middle. Our concern was that if we made it higher on our side it would be a single skin of bricks at the top and so not fully insulated, hence getting them to build the whole thing higher, otherwise we'd have to build another skin on our side which defeats the object of it being on the boundary.
Their architect had also said the wall foundations "could support a 3 storey building" but we're unconvinced so we're asking for structural engineer proof etc. Good point re documenting it during works etc, thank you.

Don't agree to a gutter in the middle. They need the gutter on their side of the boundary wall so you can build up on it later..

Here's what we did. Our neighbour already had the wall.

We built up so that our steel was roughly level with the existing ceiling which is about 2.4m.

I imagine you won't be able to build a roof structure on a single brick so you'll need a steel beam up high or another skin anyway?

Ours is 1.8m inside, 2.4m outside. Pics of guttering attached!

We are slightly uphill from our neighbours so were limited in how high we could go.

1.8m is fine, our overall ceiling height is 2.3m as well but the lower side doesn't feel cramped in the slightest, probably because the top of the slope is quite a bit higher than the rest of the room.

Actually scratch that, our internal wall height on the short side is 1.9m not 1.8!