The city is a set of banks
Durham is built on the banks of the Wear. The river loops the peninsula, and the streets climb away from it in short slopes. Neville's Cross sits high. Gilesgate rises from the centre. Villages south of the gorge have gardens that tip towards a lane. Even where you cannot see the water, a spirit level on a back lawn will usually find a fall.
Our team does not average that fall and hope the table feels steady. A sloping patio drains, which is useful, and it slides the chairs, which is not. The better habit is a split level: a landing outside the door, broad enough for a table, and a second area where the garden wants to rest. The fall is taken in the step.
Witton Gilbert, steeper than Pity Me, sits in its own valley with a burn in the bottom. The Wear is the river of the city to the south-east. Let a bank stay a bank where paving it would only make a ramp.
How we set out steps and landings
We start at the door. The landing has to clear the sill and the air bricks. On a house cut into a bank, that landing may be the whole upper patio. Below it we look for a pause: the end of a wall, or the place the lawn already flattens.
Steps are even and shallow enough to see. A low wall or a firm edge holds the upper level so it does not creep downhill. On a colliery terrace that wall is often already there. Each level needs its own outlet, or the upper patio will pour onto the lower one. Clay does not soak a storm away, so we fall each landing towards a border, a lawn or a gully.
The 300 mm idea, in plain words
Picture the ground as it is now, at the edge of the proposed paving. If the new surface would stand more than 300 mm above that ground, it is no longer a patio at ground level. It has become a raised platform, and Durham County Council may ask for an application before it is built.
We use that height as a limit, not a target. On a gentle bank one step stays under it. On a steep plot above the Wear, or on the side of the valley at Witton Gilbert, a view can tempt a taller platform. Sometimes two modest steps and a planted bank between them keep every surface under the line. Sometimes you really do want the height, and then the quote says the council should see it first.
A ground-level landing with a shallow step usually needs no application. More than five square metres of sealed front paving draining to the road usually does. Conservation areas on the planning data map can add checks around walls.
Clay, the river and the flood map
Water runs off a bank and then sits where the clay will not take it. A patio at the foot of a slope can become the collecting point for the whole garden. A gravel strip or a drain at the top of the lower level keeps the sitting area from being the stream. The Geology Viewer often shows a clay cover over the older rock the Wear has cut through. The excavation is the proof. We pack stone in layers and we hold the downhill edge, because anything loose will try to walk down the bank.
The flood map for planning matters on the lowest plots, close to the river or a burn. We do not quote a zone from the postcode. Surface water on a bank is the problem the levels are built to answer.
Materials that behave on a slope
Riven sandstone grips on a step and on a landing that still has a slight designed fall. Porcelain wants a truer level, so it belongs on the upper terrace outside new doors rather than on a long ramp. Block paving suits a path that twists down the side of a house. Stone, porcelain and block paving can share one garden when the slope changes job, from sitting to walking.
Ask for a quote and describe the fall in ordinary words. Towards the Wear, towards the lane, sideways, or a bank in the middle of the lawn. Say whether you want one seating area or two. Our team will suggest a split that keeps each surface level and stays on the right side of the 300 mm line unless you and the council decide otherwise.
FAQs
Can a sloping garden have a level patio?
Yes. We build a level landing at the door and, where the bank needs it, a second level with a step. The fall is taken in the step rather than across the table.
What is the 300 mm point?
If the new surface stands more than 300 mm above the ground around it, ask Durham County Council before it is built. Lower paving at the back of a house usually needs no application.
Do you pave gardens that fall towards the Wear?
We pave on the banks above the river and in the villages around it. Low plots should be checked on the flood map for planning. We do not assume a zone from the postcode.
What should a quote request say about the slope?
Which way it falls, how steep it feels, and whether you want one seating area or two. Add the postcode and the access. The quote form is enough to start.