diff --git a/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeMesh.C b/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeMesh.C
index f255331f7..42aa2f5b5 100644
--- a/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeMesh.C
+++ b/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeMesh.C
@@ -179,7 +179,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
     const boundBox& bb = mesh.globalData().bb();
     const vector span = bb.span();
-    const scalar mergeDim = 1e-4 * bb.minDim();
+
+    // Read merge tolerance
+    const scalar mergeTolerance = readScalar(dict.lookup("mergeTolerance"));
+    const scalar mergeDim = mergeTolerance*bb.minDim();
 
     Info<< "Mesh bounding box : " << bb << nl
         << "        with span : " << span << nl
@@ -200,7 +203,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
     // Collapse edges
     // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
+    if (mergeTolerance > SMALL)
     {
         Info<< "Collapsing edges < " << mergeDim << " ..." << nl << endl;
 
diff --git a/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeProperties b/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeProperties
index 6a2269dc5..5f82569fc 100644
--- a/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeProperties
+++ b/applications/utilities/mesh/generation/extrudeMesh/extrudeProperties
@@ -70,5 +70,7 @@ sigmaRadialCoeffs
     pStrat          1;
 }
 
+mergeTolerance      1e-4;
+
 // * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //