Free standing wall, will it stay up?

[ivixor]

Hi,

I am going to demolish an outbuilding in my garden:



As you can see, it also forms part of the boundary of the garden. I'm going to reuse the concrete slab as a patio base. There is a square brick pier half way along the structure on the inside.

My question is can I also keep only the outer wall? Will it be safe?

I also can keep a block's worth of wall coming back into the garden on the end you can see. I would also knock a block or two of height off the wall.

 

[wessex101]

How thick is the wall? If it is half brick (4") almost certainly not safe to leave as a freestanding wall over 1000mm tall, even with the central pier and end buttresses.

I've got a leaflet somewhere giving the maximum safe heights of freestanding walls, I'll see if I can find it.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

How thick is the wall? If it is half brick (4") almost certainly not safe to leave as a freestanding wall over 1000mm tall, even with the central pier and end buttresses.

I've got a leaflet somewhere giving the maximum safe heights of freestanding walls, I'll see if I can find it.

That only applies to new walls with a foundation, the condition of this wall will be questionable at best. There's a guide for garden walls on the planning portal https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/20/fences_gates_and_garden_walls/2

 

[wessex101]

My library was more organised than I expected.

For Zone 2 which includes East Anglia max height for half brick thick freestanding wall (100mm) is given as 450mm tall; one brick thick (215mm) given as 1300mm tall; one and a half brick (325mm) given as max. 2175mm tall.

That is from an old Dept of the Environment leaflet based on BRE GBG 13 and 14. We were all given a copy at work when a local child was killed by a 3ft wall falling on them.

Just looked at Freddies link, that is exactly the same as my old leaflet from about 1985, I wonder if anyone actually bothers to check and update these things or whether they regurgitate the same old guff.

 

[ivixor]

It's single brick width yes, though it's concrete blocks. Thanks for the responses - looks like it's coming down!