GS Renovation removes load bearing walls in Leatherhead houses, replacing what the wall carried with steel sized by the structural engineer we appoint. Building control sits with the Southern Building Control Partnership, which covers Mole Valley alongside Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge. We coordinate the application and the inspections. Fully insured, with free no obligation quotations.
What has to happen before a load bearing wall comes out
A structural engineer has to establish what the wall carries and size the beam that replaces it. That means looking at the floor span above, at anything bearing on the wall at first floor, and at where the new loads travel down. We appoint the engineer, build to the calculations issued, and put the application in to the Southern Building Control Partnership, a shared service covering three council areas: Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, and Tandridge.
Cost follows the opening and the making good. Indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026, put an RSJ beam alone for one straightforward opening at £1,500 to £4,000. A full knock through, including wall removal, engineer fee and making good, runs from £2,500 to £6,500+. We quote after seeing the wall, free and with no obligation.
Leatherhead does not sit on one kind of ground
Four different bedrock units outcrop across the town. The British Geological Survey maps chalk, the Thanet Formation, the Lambeth Group and the London Clay Formation within Leatherhead. Which one is under a given house is part of what the engineer establishes before deciding what a new bearing or a new pad has to do.
The change happens inside the town centre. The chalk gives way to the Palaeogene beds there. The High Street sits on chalk, and the western end of North Street and Gravel Hill on a narrow band of Thanet Formation sand. Bull Hill and Fairfield Road, a few hundred metres north, sit on the Lambeth Group.
North Leatherhead and Fairfield Road sit on different beds again
The London Clay Formation, described as clay and silt, is mapped as the bedrock beneath Barnett Wood Lane and Leatherhead Common. That is a different material from the chalk under the town centre, and the engineer takes it into account when a bearing reaches ground level. It is one reason a detail that worked on one street is not lifted onto another.
Fairfield Road is different again. The Lambeth Group is mapped as its bedrock, with Head deposits over its northern end and none over its southern end. The British Geological Survey describes Head as gravel, sand, silt and clay accumulated by downslope solifluction, soil creep and hill wash.
- Lintel replacement where an existing opening has failed
- Making good, plastering and skirting reinstatement
- Nib walls and piers formed where the engineer requires them
- Spine wall openings in Victorian and Edwardian terraces
- Electrics, pipework and radiators diverted out of the wall
Why Leatherhead Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
A load bearing wall removal is a decision about what the wall carries, not about how quickly it can come down. We appoint a structural engineer to establish that and to size the replacement, and we build to what is issued rather than to a rule of thumb. Building control goes to the Southern Building Control Partnership, which covers Mole Valley alongside Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge. We are fully insured, we coordinate the application and the inspections, and quotations are free and carry no obligation.
- Staged demolition rather than taking a wall through in one go
- Pipework, cables and radiators diverted before demolition
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
- Joist ends properly supported once the masonry is out
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you