I have a small wall on private land which drops 12 foot on one side.  This wall has been in situ for years but has recently had works done to the ground on one side.  Can anyone let me know what the minimum height should be for external stone walls.

Originally Posted by: craigroberts76

Originally Posted by: Billy.Latham

I have a small wall on private land which drops 12 foot on one side.  This wall has been in situ for years but has recently had works done to the ground on one side.  Can anyone let me know what the minimum height should be for external stone walls.

minimum height? I have a wall in the garden thats 3 bricks high, 

Thanks but I have staff who will access this area and I dont want an accident.  Was thinking of raising anyway but did not know what the minimum legal height was

From a personal perspective if this wall is low enough to trip or tumble over I would have a railing system fitted so that the top of the rail was a minimum of 1.1 metres above ground level.

Approved Document K (Protection from falling, collison and impact) of the UK Building Regulations gives pointers.

Billy 

There are at least two potential risks:

Someone falls from a higher level from one side because the wall drops on the other. That may be covered by both Building Regulations and/or the Work at Height Regulations [assuming you are in the UK], though in each case "grandfather rights" may apply to enable a lower height of edge protection than would be expected by modern standards (with the heights being increased to take account of people getting taller).

The wall collapses, possibly as a result of the recent works you mention - could have presented "temporary works" requirements at the time, but may have weakened the structure so that it is less capable of withstanding static or dynamic loadings.

See amongst other guidance https://www.gov.uk/guidance/your-garden-walls-better-to-be-safe#:~:text=Garden%20and%20boundary%20walls%20should,of%20death%20by%20falling%20masonry

NB that is not just a wall it’s a retaining wall (sounds like a tv advert). You may want to consider getting professional opinion before just building it higher. A higher wall will now add to the horizontal load on the wall especially if someone falls on to it.

You said the ground has been altered on one side, but not how. Has the ground either been reduced even more on the 12-foot side or made higher on the other side and thus reducing the existing wall height relatively, but increasing the force on the wall?

You may want to put a separate railing up not attached to the wall, opposed to just making the wall higher.

Good on you for wanting to do what is right.

Chris