GS Renovation removes load-bearing walls in Harlow houses and installs the steel that replaces them. A structural engineer we appoint establishes what the wall carries and issues the calculations, and we build to them. GS Renovation is a contractor, not a surveyor or an engineering practice. We coordinate the building control application and the inspections for you, and make good afterwards.
What a load-bearing wall does in Harlow's terraced stock
In a terrace the walls doing structural work are the ones crossing the house between the party walls. Census 2021 counted 37,856 households in Harlow, of which 17,166 were in terraced houses, compared with 5,381,432 out of 23,436,085 households across England. The Harlow Design Guide records that housing in Harlow was developed in housing groups of approximately 150 to 500 dwellings, each with a distinctive style. The internal layout of one group is therefore not a reliable guide to the next.
That is why the survey comes before the price. The engineer needs to see what bears on the wall: the direction of the floor joists, the wall above, a roof structure, or nothing at all. Where a wall turns out not to be load-bearing, the job and the cost both shrink. Where it is, the beam is sized to carry the load and to limit deflection, and the bearings are designed as carefully as the span.
Mark Hall North estates and their build dates
Mark Hall North houses come from a recorded set of estates with dated construction, which helps date the fabric. Harlow Council records that Broomfield holds 58 dwellings by F. Gibberd and Partners, built April 1950 to January 1954, and that Tany's Dell holds 170 dwellings by Fry Drew and Partners, built April 1950 to December 1953. Three estates were designed by the HDC Design Group: Dovehouse Croft, 42 dwellings, August 1952 to April 1953; Fesants Croft, 86 dwellings, July 1951 to March 1953; and Glebelands, 105 dwellings, April 1950 to March 1954.
Knowing the estate tells you which era of construction the engineer is reading. The council's appraisal also records that terraced rows there were built with access tunnels through the row, giving pedestrian access from the front to the rear gardens. An opening driven through a terraced row has to be supported over its head, so the structure around it matters to any alteration nearby. That is established at survey rather than after the ceiling comes down.
Older Harlow fabric needs a different survey
An older house in Old Harlow is not framed like a postwar terrace. Harlow Council's Old Harlow appraisal records a rich variety of listed buildings of different ages, ranging from the 15th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It also records traditional materials and historic local building methods such as timber frames, tiled roofs and pargetting. In a timber framed building the frame is the structure, so a partition can be carrying load that a modern eye would not expect it to carry.
Consent works differently there too. Harlow Council states you need conservation area consent from the council before you demolish any building or part of a building in a conservation area, so the position is worth confirming with the council before any wall comes down. Where the building is listed, listed building consent is a separate application from planning permission and from building control approval. We coordinate the building control side and check the heritage position with the council first.
What Harlow Council charges to sign the work off
For alterations to a single dwelling costing more than £5,000 and not more than £25,000, Harlow Council's building notice charge is £598.26 and the full plans charge totals £553.95, on the fee schedule effective from 1 April 2024. Those are two different routes to the same approval. Full plans means the drawings and calculations are checked before work starts, which suits a job with engineered steel in it. A building notice puts the weight on the site inspections instead.
- Making good, plastering and skirting reinstatement
- Padstones and correct bearing at each end of the opening
- Steel boxed, fire protected and finished ready for decoration
- Building control notification and inspection sign-off
- Nib walls and piers formed where the engineer requires them
Why Choose GS Renovation in Harlow
A wall removal is a transfer of risk as much as a piece of building work, and it only works cleanly when one party holds all of it. GS Renovation appoints the structural engineer, builds to the calculations issued, coordinates the building control application and inspections, and makes good afterwards. You are not left chasing an engineer, a builder and a plasterer separately. The company is fully insured and registered in England, company number 14611254, and quotations are free and carry no obligation.
- A dedicated project manager from first survey to handover
- Downstand and flush beam options priced at quotation stage
- Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- Paperwork and certificates handed over for when you sell
- Joist ends properly supported once the masonry is out