Row houses are family units standing side by side and sharing side walls, each with its own front and back door, its own roof section and its own hearth. They give each family a private unit while saving wall material, but a party wall only stops fire if it rises through the roof, so a roof built as one continuous combustible structure over the whole row defeats it.
Part of Multi-Family Housing Design
Row houses, or terraces, are connected single-family units that share their side walls, each with its own entrance, hearth and roof section.
Private Units, Shared Walls, And One Weak Point In The Roof
The multi-family guide lists the strengths of the form: each family has a self-contained unit with its own entrance; shared walls save wall material compared to detached houses; a thick masonry party wall resists fire spread; units can be different sizes; and the form balances community with privacy. The weaknesses: noise through shared walls, end units that lose one shared wall’s thermal benefit, and little natural light on the sides with shared walls. It is best for established settlements wanting permanent housing.
How much wall is saved is worked out in Material Savings; it is less than the guide’s text suggests for square units.
The guide also advises building the roof “as one continuous structure”. That is sound for weathertightness but conflicts with the fire benefit of the party wall. A masonry or earth wall that stops at the underside of a timber or thatch roof leaves the roof void open from one house to the next; flame and hot gas travel along it. Terrace builders have long dealt with this by carrying the party wall up through the roof above the covering as a parapet. No height figure is given here because none is sourced in this corpus; use the principle, and make the wall clearly higher than the roof surface beside it.
What You Need
- A site with the row axis set for sun and wind (Solar Orientation and Geometry)
- Dense, thick party walls of masonry, earth or earthbag
- Separate flues, one per hearth
- A drain along the front and back
Method
Step 1: Build the party walls first; they are the structural backbone (Structural Bracing).
Step 2: Carry the party walls through the roof and cap them, or build a firestop across the roof void at every wall.
Step 3: Give every unit its own chimney, not one shared stack (Chimney Draft).
Step 4: Seal the wall where it meets the roof, floor and pipes so neither sound nor smoke passes (Sound Isolation Between Units).
Step 5: Place the row away from others; a long burning row is a large radiator (Fire Breaks and Building Spacing).
Common Mistakes
- A party wall that stops below the roof.
- Cutting recesses and flues into the party wall until it is thin and cracked.
- Putting windows only on the front, leaving the deep middle dark.
Safety
Smoke and carbon monoxide pass through party walls
Cracks, unsealed pipe holes and shared roof voids let smoke and carbon monoxide pass from one house to the next; a neighbour’s blocked chimney can fill your house. Seal the wall, vent every stove to the outside and never run two stoves into one flue.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Thermal Efficiency (Party Walls) — what shared walls save in fuel
- Combine with: Courtyard Cluster — the alternative with more independence