GS Renovation removes load-bearing walls across Peckham, from the bay-fronted terraces off Peckham Rye to the converted period homes running towards Camberwell. With over 30 years of structural work in SE15, we take out the wall that separates your kitchen from the closet wing and carry the load overhead on a properly sized steel.
Taking out a supporting wall in Peckham
Peckham's Victorian and Edwardian terraces were built room by room, so the wall between the middle reception and the rear closet wing is often doing structural work, carrying floor joists and the masonry above. Before any Stanley knife touches the plaster, we have a structural engineer assess exactly what the wall holds, then design a steel beam sized to take that load and bear onto padstones at each end.
The work itself is methodical rather than dramatic. We install temporary props to hold the floors above, cut out the wall in controlled stages, lift the beam into position onto its padstones, then pack and pin it tight so nothing is left to settle. In a side-return layout the steel frequently runs the depth of the closet wing, which lets us open the ground floor without disturbing the rooms upstairs.
Party wall and building control in SE15
Because Peckham's terraces are packed tightly along streets near Peckham Rye and out towards Dulwich, the beam usually bears onto the shared party wall you have with the house next door. Cutting a bearing pocket into that wall is notifiable under the Party Wall Act, so you serve notice on the neighbour before we start and keep the paperwork straight from the outset.
Removing a load-bearing wall is structural work under the Building Regulations, so Southwark Council's building control signs off the engineer's calculations and inspects the finished steel. This is building control, not planning permission, which internal work like this does not need. We coordinate the engineer, the inspections and the making-good so you deal with one accountable team rather than juggling trades.
How the load moves onto steel
The interesting part of a wall removal is not the demolition, it is the order in which the weight changes hands. First the floor above is picked up on adjustable props standing on spreaders, so that the wall below is doing nothing at all. Then a narrow slot is cut at high level, just wide enough for the beam, and the beam is worked into it while the props are still carrying everything above.
Next the ends are packed and the padstones bedded, and as that mortar cures the beam begins to take the load. Only then does the masonry beneath come out, in sections. Props stay for several days afterwards while the bedding gains strength, and striking them is the moment the beam takes full weight for the first time. Done in that order, in a Peckham terrace nothing shifts and no plaster cracks in the rooms upstairs. If you are staying in the house, that is the week worth planning around, because the room is unusable while props are standing in it.
- Final level checks before the temporary props come out
- Temporary propping, needling and staged demolition
- Joist ends supported where the wall carried the floor above
- Steel boxed, fire protected and finished ready for decoration
- Rubble bagged and cleared as the work progresses
Why Peckham Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
Peckham homeowners choose GS Renovation because we handle load-bearing wall removal as one accountable job. You get an engineer-designed and correctly sized steel served on the neighbour, Southwark building control managed end to end, careful propping in an occupied home and tidy working, all backed by 30+ years across SE15.
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- Downstand and flush beam options priced at quotation stage
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
- Joist ends properly supported once the masonry is out