Turbulent premixed flame propagation in the vicinity of a wall is studied using a three-dimensional constant-density simulation of flames propagating in a channel. The influence of the walls is investigated in terms of the flamelet approach, where flamelet speed and flame surface density transport are used to describe the flame. The walls have constant temperature and lead to flamelet quenching for sufficiently small wall–flame distances. Starting from the exact evolution equation for the surface density of propagating interfaces (Trouvé & Poinsot 1994; Candel & Poinsot 1990; Pope 1988), a budget for the flame surface density equation is presented before, during, and after the interaction with the wall. Before the flame interacts with the wall, flame propagation is controlled by a balance between surface production and annihilation. During the interaction, high flame surface density gradients near the wall are responsible for the predominance of the transport terms. Closures of all terms of the flame surface density equation are proposed. These models are based on flamelet ideas and take into account wall effects. Enthalpy loss through the wall affects flamelet speed, flamelet annihilation and flame propagation. Decrease of turbulent scales near the wall affects turbulent diffusion and flame strain. This model is compared to DNS results using two types of tests: (i) a priori tests, where individual terms of the modelled flame surface density equation are compared to the terms of the exact interface density propagation equation, calculated with the DNS; (ii) a posteriori tests, where the final model is used to obtain total reaction rate, mean fuel mass fraction, heat flux at the wall and fuel mass fraction at the wall in the configuration used in the DNS. For both types of tests the model compares well with the DNS results.