South and west of Harrogate town, in HG2, gardens leave the flatter streets and start to fall. Some drop gently. Some fall towards the valley in a bank you feel in your knees. Our team puts the sitting space where you can use it, and we do not ask the deck to do a wall's job.
A slope is not a flat lawn
A level drawn on paper hides the fall. We measure from the ground that is already there, at the door and at the outer edge. The Planning Portal's usual starting point for a house is a deck no more than 30 cm above that ground. On a slope the door can feel low while the outer corner is already past 30 cm. That corner is the one that counts for an application. North Yorkshire Council decides the borderline. We flag it before boards are ordered.
Half the garden, counted with other extensions and outbuildings, is the other ordinary limit, and nothing should sit forward of the main front wall. Those limits are for houses. A flat, or the grounds of a listed building, sits outside them. Planning Data shows if the house is also in a conservation area. HG2 is not one area. Pannal has its own old centre. A house on a newer hillside may be clear. The map says which.
The deck and the bank
The useful deck is usually on the upper ground, near the house, where the table is out of the steepest fall. Posts stand in proper holes, concreted, square to the post rather than scraped into the side of the hill. The frame is braced so it does not rack downhill. Joists stay clear of the soil. The underside stays open.
Below that, the bank is a separate question. If it is already stable, we leave it, plant it, and stop the deck short of it. If it is moving, or the new work would load it, it needs retaining: a structure that holds soil, in timber or in stone that suits the gritstone district. The deck may sit above that structure or stop behind it. It does not replace it. We will not nail a deep fascia to the edge of a deck and call the bank held.
Burn Bridge, just south of Pannal, is the sort of lane where this comes up, with gardens towards the water. The same thinking applies on an HG2 hillside that never sees a burn. The fall is the brief. The watercourse is a separate check.
Water behind a wall
A hold that stops soil also stops water, unless water has a way out. Wet ground behind a solid face pushes, especially after weeks of rain off the hills. We do not publish a pipe size for every bank. Water must not be trapped against the house or behind a new face.
The practical signs are simple. The ground above the hold should not pond against the wall of the house. The face should not be a sealed bucket. The deck above should shed through its gaps, not pour a sheet into the back of the hold. A gravel drain behind a wall is one ordinary way to give water a path. It is designed for the bank in front of us, not copied from a diagram of a different hill.
The BGS Geology Viewer is the regional picture. A stony bank and a soft wet one do not take the same hold. The flood map for planning is the check if the bottom of the garden is low. We do not publish a zone for HG2. A hillside and a valley floor are not one address.
Posts, edges and the lower garden
Where a person could fall more than about 600 mm, a guard is the usual Building Regulations idea, often at the outer edge. A rail is not a retaining wall. If you walk beside the top of the hold, that edge still needs a guard when the fall is high enough.
Steps down to a lower lawn, if you want them, need even rises and a hand you can take. We do not scatter stepping points in the bank and hope. The lower garden can stay as grass or planting. It does not all have to become deck.
Tell us how the garden falls when you ask for a quote: a gentle tilt, or a bank you would not mow. We will visit, measure the 30 cm question at the outer edge, and say whether the bank needs holding or only respecting.
Frequently asked questions about decks and retaining
Can the deck hold the soil back?
No. A deck is a frame and boards. Soil that needs holding gets its own structure, in timber or stone. The deck can sit with that structure. It does not replace it.
What happens to rain behind a wall?
It needs a way out. A solid face with nowhere for water to go will be pushed by wet ground. We design that path for the bank, and we do not trap water against the house.
Does a slope always need permission?
Not always. The Portal's usual house starting point is 30 cm above the existing ground. On a fall, measure the outer edge. Over that, an application is the likely path. The council decides.
Where does the rail go?
Where someone could fall more than about 600 mm. That is often the lower edge. A side that stays low does not need the same guard, and the guard is not the thing holding the bank.