Taking out a load bearing wall means putting something else in to carry what it carried. That is a steel beam or a lintel, sized by a structural engineer, sitting on bearings designed for the load. We appoint the engineer, build to the calculations and coordinate the building control side of it. We do not produce structural calculations ourselves. This page sets out what the job involves on an Aylesbury property, and where the consent questions sit.
Inside the Aylesbury Conservation Area a new opening can need planning permission
Buckinghamshire Council's adopted appraisal lists partial demolition, including new openings in external elevations, among the works needing planning permission inside the Aylesbury Conservation Area. That sits alongside building regulations rather than replacing them, and it applies to the elevation rather than to the beam. Removing an internal wall and forming a new opening through an outside wall are two different consent questions.
There is one Aylesbury Conservation Area. The adopted appraisal states that it includes the historic core of Aylesbury, the historic hamlet of Walton and a group of Victorian villas on Wendover Road. The first thing to establish is whether your address falls inside that boundary, because the answer decides whether a planning application sits in front of the structural work.
The appraisal describes the terraces at Ripon Street, Granville Street and Walton
Buckinghamshire Council's appraisal describes Ripon Street and Granville Street as a mixture of mostly two storey terraced houses, semi detached villas and a handful of detached buildings. It records them as mostly red brick with stucco detailing. Bay windows are described as common, some to ground floor and others rising two storeys. A bay that rises two storeys is carried by what is beneath it, which changes what a ground floor opening has to support.
The same appraisal describes Walton as terraced housing, a mixture of planned nineteenth century terraces west of Walton Street and piecemeal eighteenth and nineteenth century frontages including Walton Terrace to the east, many concealing earlier structures. Where a frontage conceals something earlier, what the wall is built of is settled by opening up rather than by the date on the deeds. We survey before we price, and we say so when the survey changes the answer.
South and east of the centre the bedrock is Gault and Upper Greensand
British Geological Survey 1:50,000 mapping puts Bedgrove, Wendover Road and Oakfield Road in south east Aylesbury on Gault Formation and Upper Greensand Formation, undifferentiated, described by BGS as mudstone, siltstone and sandstone. Walton Court and Hawkslade in south Aylesbury are mapped on Gault Formation bedrock, a Cretaceous clay.
BGS describes the Gault Formation as pale to dark grey or blue grey clay or mudstone, glauconitic in part, with a sandy base. Clay bedrock matters where a beam bearing needs a new pad or pier taken below floor level. The structural engineer we appoint designs each bearing from what is found at the actual bearing point, and we dig the trial hole that answers it.
- Structural engineer's calculations arranged and followed
- Lintel replacement where an existing opening has failed
- Assessment of whether a wall is load-bearing
- Steel boxed, fire protected and finished ready for decoration
- Electrics, pipework and radiators diverted out of the wall
Trusted Load-Bearing Wall Removal in Aylesbury
A wall removal in Aylesbury raises two consent questions rather than one. Building regulations always apply, and inside the conservation area a new opening in an external elevation is a planning matter as well. We establish which apply before anything is priced, then appoint the structural engineer and build to the calculations issued. Founder Abdelaaziz Saaid has over 30 years of hands on experience, and you deal with one point of contact from the survey through to the completion certificate. The company is fully insured and registered in England, company number 14611254.
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- We establish what the wall actually carries before we quote
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- Structural engineer instructed and coordinated on your behalf
- Party Wall notices handled where the opening reaches a shared wall
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site