Removing a load bearing wall means transferring what it carries onto a new beam and its bearings. We survey, appoint a structural engineer, work to the calculations issued, prop, remove, install and make good. We do not write structural calculations. Two questions decide the route on a Letchworth Garden City property: whether the building is listed, and what the wall is actually made of.
Check whether your terrace carries a group listing before anything is priced
Historic England's National Heritage List includes 18 group entries in Letchworth that list whole terraces under a single Grade II listing. Among them are 86 to 144 Rushby Mead, 1 to 24 Westholm, 8 to 32 Meadow Way and 17 to 43 Ridge Avenue.
A single house number inside one of those ranges is a listed building, and that changes the consent route for internal work. It is not something you can read off the street, because the neighbouring terrace may carry no entry at all. We check the National Heritage List entry for your address at survey and tell you what applies before a scheme is drawn.
The age of the stock decides what you find behind the plaster
Valuation Office Agency figures for 31 March 2025 record 1,890 Letchworth properties built between 1900 and 1918, with a further 170 built before 1900. In the Letchworth East area, which covers the founding Garden City streets, 1,140 of 3,580 domestic properties date from 1900 to 1918.
Age changes the survey rather than the principle. An early cottage, an interwar semi and a post war house each hand the load down differently, and the engineer needs the real build up rather than an assumption. We open up where it is needed and pass what we find to the engineer before calculations are issued.
The Cheap Cottages Exhibition streets were built in experimental materials
158 Wilbury Road was constructed from prefabricated reinforced concrete for the 1905 Cheap Cottages Exhibition. It is listed Grade II star under National Heritage List entry 1174901, added to the list on 7 September 1979. 4 Cross Street is a Grade II listed Cheap Cottage built from blocks made on site by a portable machine, and it won a special prize for the best cottage of cement concrete.
The exhibition was opened by the Duke of Devonshire on 25 July 1905 and drew over 60,000 visitors. Its streets are Wilbury Road, Icknield Way, The Quadrant, Cross Street, Nevells Road, Norton Way North, Eastholm and Westholm. On streets like those the wall build up is established on site, address by address, rather than assumed from a standard detail.
The removal is signed off by Hertfordshire Building Control
Building control for Letchworth is carried out by Hertfordshire Building Control Limited, which North Herts Council owns along with seven other Hertfordshire local authorities. The application for a wall removal goes there rather than to a council building control department.
We make the application and book the inspections so the propping, the bearings and the finished beam are each seen at the right point. Holding a following trade back for a day is cheaper than opening a finished ceiling for an inspector.
- Joist ends supported where the wall carried the floor above
- Making good, plastering and skirting reinstatement
- Ceiling reinstatement and level correction across the opening
- Electrics, pipework and radiators diverted out of the wall
- Temporary propping, needling and staged demolition
The GS Renovation Difference in Letchworth Garden City
You get one point of contact for the listed building check, the structural engineer, the building control application and the making good afterwards. We appoint and coordinate structural engineers and build to their calculations, and we never produce those calculations ourselves. Where the wall build up cannot be seen, we open up and record it rather than pricing around a guess. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured and rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder. Quotations are free and carry no obligation.
- We establish what the wall actually carries before we quote
- A dedicated project manager from first survey to handover
- Joist ends properly supported once the masonry is out
- Downstand and flush beam options priced at quotation stage
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on