Taking out a wall that is carrying load is a structural job with a paper trail: an engineer's calculation, a building regulations application, proper propping, and an inspection at the right moment. We appoint the engineer and build to the design they issue. We do not produce the calculations ourselves. Free, no obligation quotations, and the company is fully insured.
Whether the wall is original, and whether the building is listed
The Epping Town Neighbourhood Plan records 47 statutorily listed buildings in Epping High Street, and in a listed building an internal wall removal needs listed building consent. Epping Forest District Council also records that the listed buildings lining both sides of the High Street were substantially altered internally during the 19th century. A later partition can look structural and carry nothing, and a wall added long after construction can have picked up load since. That is a survey question, answered by opening up, not by tapping the plaster.
The house types on the town centre side
At the 2021 census, Epping Hemnall ward contained 2,817 households, of which 873 were semi detached, 649 terraced, 575 detached and 626 in purpose built flats. Those are four different structural problems. A terrace has party walls at both ends and limited access for steel. A semi has one party wall that fixes where support can land. A flat brings a freeholder and the structure of the floors above and below into the decision. We establish which you have before pricing anything.
What the building control application costs, and when
Epping Forest District Council charges a full plans building control application in two stages: a plan charge payable on submission, and an inspection charge invoiced after the first site inspection. The service is the council's own, run from the Civic Offices at 323 High Street. We prepare and submit the application with the engineer's calculations and drawings behind it, and we tell you which charge falls at which point so the cash flow is not a surprise halfway through.
- Making good, plastering and skirting reinstatement
- Party Wall Act notices where the opening reaches a shared wall
- Building control notification and inspection sign-off
- Electrics, pipework and radiators diverted out of the wall
- Padstones and correct bearing at each end of the opening
Why Epping Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
The wall is the easy part. Knowing which wall is carrying, in a town where the census counts thousands of semi detached, terraced and detached houses of different ages next to each other, is what decides the job. We open up, appoint the structural engineer, prop properly and build to the calculation issued. One point of contact from the first survey to the building control sign off. Fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254.
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Props and strongboys set out to a temporary works plan
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
- We establish what the wall actually carries before we quote