Garden Plot Checker
Put in your garden’s rough length, width and access and see a to-scale sketch of what might fit behind your house, with a rule-of-thumb read on each point. It takes about two minutes and there are no prices or valuations — just a first look before a free appraisal.
Your plot, to scale
A rule-of-thumb sketch, not a planning view. It assumes about 21 m between facing back windows for two storeys (about 15 m for lower designs), a 9 m deep new home and its own garden. Councils use their own guides, and the free appraisal is how you find out properly.
How the checker works it out
The sketch puts your house at the front of the plot, keeps a separation gap behind it, then tests whether a new home and a garden of its own fit in what’s left. Many councils use around 21 metres between facing back windows; single-storey or carefully designed one-and-a-half-storey homes can sometimes sit closer. Your council’s own guide decides.
For access, it compares the gap beside your house with the widths that usually matter: around 3.7 metres for a fire engine route in England, and enough for a car. Where a fire engine can’t get within 45 metres of the new home, other measures, often sprinklers, may be accepted if building control and the fire service agree — and in Wales every new home needs sprinklers anyway.
It doesn’t value the plot, and it can’t see trees, levels, drainage, covenants or the street’s character. Those are what the free appraisal looks at. For more detail, read how wide the access needs to be and overlooking and separation distances.