Taking out a load bearing wall means replacing what the wall was carrying with a beam, and proving the new arrangement works. We survey, appoint a structural engineer for the calculations, prop the structure, install the steel and make good. We do not produce structural calculations ourselves. This page covers what a wall removal in Berkhamsted involves, from the consent question through to the ground the load ends up in.
Consent for a wall removal in Berkhamsted starts with Dacorum Borough Council
The local planning authority for Berkhamsted is Dacorum Borough Council. Removing a wall inside a house is a building regulations matter, and planning permission is a separate question. The conservation area changes the answer in places. Dacorum states that within a conservation area planning permission is required to demolish or partly demolish buildings larger than 115 cubic metres in volume, including some garden walls and chimneystacks.
So the first question about a Berkhamsted property is whether it sits inside the conservation area, and whether any part of the job counts as demolition. We settle that before quoting, and we tell you plainly if a planning application is needed alongside the building regulations one.
The terraces off the High Street were built to a two up two down plan
The Berkhamsted Conservation Area Character Appraisal records that the mid 19th century terraces here were built of brick to a two up two down floor plan, with a single sash window to each room and the main door on the front elevation. It records that after 1851 Bridge Street, Manor Street, Chapel Street and Holliday Street were planned and developed with rows of terraced housing for local workers. That land was formerly owned by the Pilkington Manor Estate, and the same paragraph adds development along an older road, Ravens Lane.
In a house of that plan, whether the wall between the two ground floor rooms is load bearing is the first thing to establish. It is established by opening up and by the structural engineer, not by assumption. The beam size, the padstones and the bearing detail all follow from that, which is why we do not price a wall removal from a photograph.
Some Berkhamsted buildings are timber framed, and that changes the method
The appraisal records that 173 High Street is Grade II* listed, is timber framed, has been scientifically dated to the 13th century and is thought to be a service wing to a former aisled hall. It also records that The Court House in Church Lane, 129 High Street known as Dean Incent's House, and 125 High Street were built in the 16th century and are timber framed. A frame carries load through posts and beams, so the survey has to come first.
The national planning data register records 61 listed buildings inside the Berkhamsted conservation area boundary, of which one is Grade I, three are Grade II* and 57 are Grade II. Work inside a listed building is a different job with a separate consent route. We say so at the quotation stage rather than once the plaster is off.
What the load lands on at the bottom
British Geological Survey 1:50,000 mapping shows Alluvium, described as clay, silt, sand and gravel, as the superficial deposit at the Chapel Street and Bridge Street area next to the River Bulbourne. At the east end of Berkhamsted near Bank Mill Lane the same mapping gives Lambeth Group, described as clay, sand and gravel, as the bedrock. That is a different foundation material from the chalk under the rest of the town.
A beam moves load that used to spread along a whole wall onto two points. Where the engineer specifies a new pad foundation under a bearing, what lies beneath it decides the detail. We dig the trial hole, record what is there and pass it to the engineer before anything is ordered.
- Party Wall Act notices where the opening reaches a shared wall
- Spine wall openings in Victorian and Edwardian terraces
- Downstand and flush beam options priced at quotation stage
- Knock-throughs between front and rear reception rooms
- Ceiling reinstatement and level correction across the opening
Why Berkhamsted Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
A wall removal in Berkhamsted starts with two questions: what the wall is carrying, and what the building is made of. A brick terrace to a two up two down plan and a timber framed 16th century house on the High Street are not the same job, and we do not price them the same way. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations issued, and coordinate the building control application and the inspections that follow. You deal with one point of contact from the first visit to the final making good. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured and rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder.
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- A dedicated project manager from first survey to handover
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Plastering, skirting and making good included in the price
- We establish what the wall actually carries before we quote