Load-Bearing Wall Removal Greenwich

GS Renovation removes load-bearing walls across Greenwich, in the post-war flats and houses that make up most of the borough as well as the Georgian townhouses near Greenwich Park and the Victorian terraces of Charlton and Eltham. We take out internal walls safely without risking the fabric above.

In Greenwich, a complete single opening typically costs £2,500 to £6,500 or more, including the engineer's calculations, the steel beam, propping and making good (indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Greenwich.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Greenwich address and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with the Royal Borough of Greenwich building control or an approved inspector. On a shared wall you serve the party wall notice as building owner; we supply the drawings.
3. The floor above is propped, the wall comes out and the beam is set on padstones.
4. Building control inspects the steel before it is covered. We make good, and the completion certificate follows.

Taking out a load-bearing wall in Greenwich

Many of Greenwich's period homes carry solid masonry internal walls that were built to hold up the floors and roof above, so before anything is touched we bring in a structural engineer to establish exactly what each wall supports. In the taller Georgian townhouses off Blackheath and around SE10, a single wall can carry loads from two or three storeys, which changes how the engineer sizes the steel.

Once the engineer has specified the beam, we install temporary props, cut out the masonry in careful stages and lower the RSJ onto padstones bedded into the flanking walls. Every step is planned so the structure is never left unsupported, and in these older properties we watch for lime mortar, timber lintels and past alterations that the calculations must account for before the props ever come down.

Housing in Greenwich

The valuation list shows roughly 125,080 homes in Greenwich, of which 22% are pre-1919, 17% interwar and 60% post-1945, split 55% flats to 45% houses. Since most homes here are flats, a wall in a flat in Greenwich may carry the floors above, so the freeholder agrees first.

Knocking through a Greenwich terrace: the through room on paper

In Greenwich 31% of homes are terraced houses and 13% are semi-detached or detached. In either, the wall between the front and back reception rooms is the classic knock-through, and Royal Greenwich has a name for it. Its building control charges carry a domestic through room as its own item, and its guidance puts a through room first among the examples of simple work that a building notice suits. That gives the owner of a straightforward knock-through a clear order: the design from the structural engineer we appoint, then the notice, then the work.

The route stays simple only while the job does. A through room is one opening in one wall. Add a second opening into the kitchen, take out the chimney breast in the same run, or widen the back wall to the garden, and the job is no longer the single item on the list. Tell building control the whole scope at the start, because the charge and the inspections are set from that description. A job that grows halfway through under a notice written for one opening leaves a gap in the paperwork, and a buyer's solicitor can ask about it years later.

Building control and party walls in SE Greenwich

Removing an internal load-bearing wall is governed by the Building Regulations, not planning permission, so the Royal Borough of Greenwich's building control inspects and signs off the beam and its bearings. The exception is a listed building: there, taking out an internal wall also needs listed building consent before any work starts, because listing protects the inside as well as the outside. Conservation area status on its own does not bring internal steelwork into planning.

Where a supporting wall meets the shared party wall between two terraced or semi-detached homes, common in Charlton, Woolwich and the Victorian streets of Eltham, the Party Wall Act applies and you serve notice on the neighbour as building owner before starting. We give you the engineer's drawings and the programme the notice needs, and run the calculations and the building control application together, so nothing stalls halfway through the job.

Choices that shape the finished opening

Two decisions change the look of a finished opening more than anything else, and both belong to you rather than to the engineer. The first is whether the beam sits below the ceiling as a visible downstand, or is lifted flush into the floor above. Flush is neater and costs more, because the joists then have to be cut and hung off the steel rather than simply resting on top of it.

The second is how much of the wall stays. Leaving a short return at each end, often called a nib, gives the beam a natural bearing and the room a defined edge, and it usually reduces the steel size. Taking the wall out corner to corner looks cleaner but pushes the load further. Both need settling before the engineer designs, because a change of mind afterwards means a new calculation and frequently a new steel. How the ceiling is finished across the beam line is a smaller choice, but it is worth agreeing before the plasterer arrives.

• Making good, plastering and skirting reinstatement
• RSJ and steel beam installation to the approved design
• Spine wall openings between front and rear rooms

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 35 statistical areas in Greenwich. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up options for your Greenwich property, it is worth reading home renovation in Greenwich, our Greenwich area guide, design and build, the party wall process on a wall removal, load-bearing wall removal anywhere in London and Wall Tie Failure.

Trusted Load-Bearing Wall Removal in Greenwich

Greenwich homeowners choose GS Renovation because one accountable team manages the whole structural job. We arrange the engineer's design, install the steel the engineer has sized on padstones and see it through to building control's completion certificate. Where a party wall is involved, you serve the notice as building owner and we give you the drawings and programme it needs. You get tidy working in an occupied home, backed by our founder's 30+ years on the tools.

Reviewed jobs near Greenwich

1 MyBuilder review from Woolwich, with each customer's own job title:

• Replace kitchen extractor hob, Woolwich, 27 Apr 2024 (5 out of 5)

Read all 31 on our reviews page.

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.