Heritage in Darlington is not a single street. It is the town centre, village cores, and older houses set among 1930s semis and later estates. A deck is a light structure compared with an extension, yet it still changes the way a garden meets a wall. Our team treats that meeting as the job. South Durham weather, family gardens and brick that has been there for decades all belong in the same drawing.
What heritage changes
An ordinary house, outside any special designation, is judged on the Planning Portal tests. The platform is no more than 30 cm above the ground. Together with sheds and extensions it covers no more than half the garden. None of it stands forward of the wall that faces the road. Those three tests are the everyday ones, and many Darlington semis pass them with a low deck at the back.
Article 2(3) land includes conservation areas. On that land, the Planning Portal says no decking is permitted development to either side of the house. The back can still be the right place, but the side return is not somewhere to tuck a platform and assume it is allowed.
Within the curtilage of a listed building, no decking is permitted development. That does not depend on whether the boards would be seen from the street. We do not guess from a fanlight or a date stone. Plenty of attractive houses are not listed. Some plain ones are.
Finding the boundary
The national conservation-area dataset is the map we use. Darlington's boundaries are drawn around particular streets and villages, not around the whole borough. A 1930s semi on a green can stand outside every area. A house two roads away can stand inside one. Hurworth, south of the town, is the sort of village where the centre and the edges need different answers, which is why decks in Hurworth and this guide belong together. Blackwell, between the town and the meadows, needs the same address-level check.
We look the address up with you. Inside a boundary, we keep the deck off the side of the house unless the council has agreed otherwise. Outside it, the height and half-garden limits still apply. Article 4 directions and conditions can remove allowances even on a newer house. Flats, and some converted houses, sit outside the householder allowances entirely. Tell us if that is the building.
Height, the garden and the wall
Older doors often sit well above the lawn. If a deck built up to that threshold would stand more than 30 cm above the ground, the usual allowance has been left behind. Our preference is a lower deck and a wide step. Where the drop is too large for that, we explain the application rather than quietly exceeding it.
The half-garden figure includes what previous owners added. A rear extension, a garage and a greenhouse all count. Long gardens behind semis can absorb a generous deck. Short yards behind a terrace cannot. We measure. We also keep the frame off the wall. Air bricks, a damp course and the base of old render need to stay visible and dry. A deck that seals those up is a problem for the house, whatever the planning position.
A mid tone usually belongs beside older brick. Composite, softwood or hardwood does not override the height rule. The family decks guide covers how the same garden is used once the heritage checks are done.
Before any board is ordered
Bring the postcode and, if you know it, whether anyone has told you the house is listed or inside a conservation area. If you do not know, that is normal. We check. We also look at the BGS Geology Viewer for the mapped ground and at the flood map for planning where the plot is near a beck or the meadows. Those maps do not design the deck. They stop us assuming.
On the visit we measure the door, the garden and the way in along the side. If the sketch needs permission, we say so. Ask for a quote when you are ready. The quote describes that garden.
Questions from parents
Is every old house in a conservation area?
No. Age and designation are different things. The mapped boundary for the address is the check.
Can we still have a deck if the house is listed?
Not under permitted development. Decking in the curtilage of a listed building needs the council's decision. We will not build as if the allowance still applied.
Why not raise the deck to the door?
Because height above 30 cm is outside the usual allowance. A wide step from a lower deck is often the way to stay within it.
Do the meadows change the rules?
They change the ground and the flood-map check, not the heritage tests. We read the flood map for the postcode and the conservation map for the address. Both can matter on the same job.