Most homeowners in St Helens do not think about the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 until the neighbour knocks on the door and asks what is happening to the chimney stack they share. The Act has been on the statute book for thirty years and applies to every property that shares a wall, floor or ceiling with a neighbour, which in the WA10 town centre belt of Victorian and Edwardian terraces is almost every house.
The reason this matters now is that 2026 has been a busy year for extensions, loft conversions and HMO conversions across the St Helens borough. The most common calls we get from homeowners on Dentons Green, Thatto Heath, Windle and the older streets off Westfield Street start with a question about plasterboarding or stud partitioning, then turn into a question about the Party Wall Act once the project touches a shared structure.
What the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 actually covers
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies in England and Wales and governs three specific kinds of work. The first is any work to a party wall, which is a wall shared with a neighbour such as the wall between two terraced houses. The second is work to a party structure, which covers shared floors, ceilings, and chimney stacks where the work affects the structure rather than the surface finish. The third is excavation work within a defined distance of a neighbouring structure, which arises on rear extensions and basement projects.
The Act is separate from building control approval. You can have a building regulation application in with St Helens Borough Council and still need a Party Wall Award in place before you set foot on the scaffolding. The two systems run in parallel.
Why WA10 terraces trigger party wall work more than most housing types
The terraced housing that runs from the Town Hall out through Dentons Green, along the older parts of Windle and into the Victorian streets around Thatto Heath is the housing type most exposed to the Party Wall Act in the borough. In a typical mid-terrace Victorian house, almost every internal wall is either a party wall with the neighbour or a load-bearing wall that supports the floors above. The chimney stacks are shared at the roof level. The floor joists often run front-to-back rather than side-to-side, which means they sit in the party wall at each end.
In practical terms, this means that any project that touches the structure of the house is likely to trigger the Act. A rear kitchen extension usually does not involve the party wall, but a side return extension that runs up to the boundary does. A loft conversion that adds a dormer on the rear roof slope does not usually involve the party wall, but one that involves raising the party wall in the roof space or cutting into the chimney stack at first floor level does. Removing a chimney breast at ground floor level almost always triggers the Act because the breast sits within the party wall.
The 1930s semi-detached housing on the outer edges of WA10 and the post-war housing in WN5 Billinge is much less exposed to the Act because the houses are detached or only share one wall. The Victorian terraces in WA9 around Peasley Cross and the Edwardian terraces in parts of WA11 Sutton are heavily exposed for the same reason as the WA10 town centre belt.
The three notice types: Section 1, Section 3 and Section 6
The Act sets out three separate notice procedures depending on the kind of work. Each has its own notice period and its own paperwork.
Section 1: building on the line of junction
A Section 1 notice is served when you want to build a new wall on the boundary line between your property and a neighbour, or to extend an existing building across the boundary. In St Helens this most commonly arises when a homeowner builds a rear extension that crosses the boundary, often because the extension is hard up against the neighbour's wall. The notice period is one month before the work starts and the neighbour can either consent or dissent.
Section 3: work to an existing party wall or party structure
A Section 3 notice is the most commonly used provision and covers work to an existing party wall, party ceiling, party floor or chimney stack. In the St Helens terraces this covers almost every project that involves the shared wall between two houses: cutting a doorway through to attach the loft, raising the party wall to extend the ridge height, removing a chimney breast at first floor level, or underpinning the foundations of the wall. The notice period is two months before the work starts. The neighbour has fourteen days to respond, after which a Party Wall Award is drawn up by surveyors appointed by each side.
Section 6: excavation near a neighbouring structure
A Section 6 notice is served when you are excavating, or constructing a new foundation, within a defined distance of a neighbour's structure. The distance is three metres for new foundations deeper than the neighbour's existing foundations, and six metres for certain kinds of piled or deep foundation work. In St Helens this most commonly arises on basement conversions and on rear extensions where the new foundation has to go past the neighbour's existing foundation. The notice period is one month before the excavation starts.
What happens if the neighbour dissents: surveyors and Party Wall Awards
A Party Wall Award is the document that resolves a dispute between the building owner and the neighbour. Each side appoints a surveyor, and the two surveyors either agree between themselves or call in a third surveyor to act as an umpire. The Award sets out what work can be done, when it can be done, what protective measures have to be in place, and what the building owner has to make good afterwards.
Surveyor fees are paid by the building owner, not the neighbour. For a typical loft conversion or rear extension on a St Helens terrace, the building owner's surveyor charges between £700 and £1,500 for preparing and serving the notice and agreeing the Award. The neighbour's own surveyor, if appointed, is also paid by the building owner. The total cost on a contested job in the borough typically runs between £1,500 and £3,000 all in.
A common misconception is that the surveyor acts as a referee. In practice the building owner's surveyor prepares the Award and serves the notices. The neighbour's surveyor checks the work is reasonable and the protective measures are adequate, then agrees the Award or asks for changes. The process is administrative rather than adversarial on the vast majority of St Helens jobs.
Common St Helens scenarios where the Act bites
Three scenarios come up over and over on the older housing across the borough. Each is a place where the homeowner is usually surprised to find that the Act applies.
Loft conversions that touch the chimney stack
The most common surprise is a loft conversion that involves cutting into the chimney stack at first floor or roof level. In a Victorian terrace the chimney stack is a party structure because it sits within the party wall and serves both properties. Cutting into the stack to add a flue, lowering the stack below the new ridge height, or removing the stack entirely all require a Section 3 notice. We see roughly one in three St Helens loft conversion projects run into this.
Chimney breast removal at ground or first floor
Removing a chimney breast at ground or first floor level is one of the most common party wall jobs on the WA10 terraces. The breast sits within the party wall and is supported by the wall on the neighbour's side. Removing the breast on one side requires either a steel beam inserted into the party wall to carry the stack above, or full removal with the agreement of the neighbour and the proper making good. The making good on the neighbour's side has to be specified in the Award.
Side return extensions on Victorian terraces
Side return extensions, where the narrow alley down the side of a Victorian terrace is filled in to extend the kitchen, often run up to the boundary. If the new wall sits on the boundary line, the work is a Section 1 matter. If the new wall has to be built partly on the neighbour's land because the boundary is not square, the work is a Section 1 plus a separate access agreement. Either way the neighbour has to be served notice and the Party Wall Award has to be in place before the foundations are dug.
What the Act does NOT cover
The Act is narrower than most homeowners assume. Three categories of work do not need a notice. Purely cosmetic work such as replastering, painting or wallpapering a party wall is excluded. Adding plasterboard to a party wall, where the plasterboard is a drylining finish on the existing wall surface, is generally excluded. Internal non-structural work such as removing a non-load-bearing stud partition inside your own property is excluded, even where the partition sits next to a party wall.
The boundary of what counts as a party wall is also defined narrowly. A wall entirely on your own land supporting only your own floors is not a party wall, even if it sits next to the neighbour's wall. A wall on the boundary line is a party wall, and a wall on your land that the neighbour relies on for support is also caught under section 4 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
How party wall work connects to the drylining programme
On most St Helens projects that involve the party wall, drylining work is needed on the wall after the structural work is signed off. The typical sequence is that the building work on the wall is completed first, the Party Wall Award is finalised, the making good on both sides is agreed, and then the drylining programme runs to finish the surfaces.
Two drylining tasks show up regularly on party wall jobs. The first is finishing the line where a chimney breast has been removed, where the new steel beam has to be boxed out with fire-rated plasterboard to the specification in the Award. The second is drylining the full face of the party wall after insulation has been added to bring the wall up to current U-value standards, which is the route we use on most Victorian terrace refurbishments.
Insulating a party wall from one side requires careful specification because the drylining must not interfere with the neighbour's wall finish. The standard approach is to leave an air gap between the new insulation and the existing wall surface, with the plasterboard on a separate stud frame inside the gap. This is the route the British Gypsum White Book sets out for retrofit insulation on solid brick party walls, and the one the building control inspector at St Helens Council will accept on a building control application.
Worked example: a rear extension on a Dentons Green terrace
A couple on a residential street off Dentons Green Lane in WA10 contacted us earlier this year about a single-storey rear kitchen extension on their mid-terrace Victorian house. The new extension was hard up against the neighbour's wall at the boundary on both sides, and the new foundations ran within three metres of the neighbour's existing foundations at the rear of the house.
The party wall procedure was:
- Section 1 notices served on both neighbours two months before the foundation work started, covering the new wall built on the boundary line
- Section 6 notices served one month before the foundation work started, covering the new foundations within three metres of the neighbours' existing foundations
- The neighbours appointed their own surveyor, the building owner's surveyor agreed the protective measures, and a Party Wall Award was drawn up before the digger arrived
- The drylining programme (insulated plasterboard on metal stud, with a separate isolated stud frame against the party wall to preserve an air gap) ran after the structural work was signed off, with the making good on the neighbours' side completed as specified in the Award
The whole party wall process took six weeks from serving the first notice to the Award being agreed, and ran in parallel with the building control application submitted to St Helens Borough Council's building control team at the Town Hall. The work on site then ran as planned with no neighbour disputes at the end of the project.
What to do before you start work on a party wall in St Helens
A short checklist for homeowners starting out on a project that touches a shared wall, floor or boundary in the St Helens borough:
- Confirm whether the work falls under Section 1, Section 3 or Section 6 of the Act, or under more than one at the same time
- Engage a party wall surveyor at least three months before the planned start date for a Section 3 notice, two months before for a Section 1 or Section 6 notice
- Issue the notice on the neighbour at the address shown on the Land Registry title, including the explanatory schedule and the drawings showing the proposed work
- Allow fourteen days for the neighbour to respond, after which a dissent is assumed and the surveyor moves to the Award stage
- Submit the building control application to St Helens Borough Council at the Town Hall in parallel with the party wall procedure, because the two systems are independent
- Plan the drylining programme to run after the Party Wall Award is in place and the structural work on the party wall is signed off
If you are at the planning stage of a loft conversion, rear extension or chimney breast removal on a St Helens terrace and want a fixed-price quote for the drylining element of the project, send us the WA10, WA9, WA11, WA12, WN4 or WN5 postcode, a short description of the existing layout, and the proposed scope. We will agree the party wall interface with your surveyor, agree the drylining specification with the building control inspector, and quote the full programme.
By the Drylining St Helens editorial team · 2026-09-28 · 2372 words
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