Taking out a load bearing wall is structural work, and it needs building regulations approval before it starts. We appoint the structural engineer, install the steel to the calculations, and coordinate the application and the inspections. The quotation is free and carries no obligation.
Building regulations approval is required, not optional
Elmbridge Building Control Services states that building regulations approval is needed for internal alterations to a dwelling if the alterations are structural. It gives removal or part removal of a load bearing wall as one of its two examples. If you take the building notice route rather than a full plans application, the service is clear about the trade off. Because no plan check is made, additional reliance is placed on the inspection stage to ensure the building regulations are complied with. Both routes are legitimate, and we tell you which one we are proposing before work starts.
The Victorian and Edwardian stock at Heath Road and Portmore Park
Elmbridge Borough Council describes the Heath Road area, including Brooklands Lane to Bridge Road, as containing many large Victorian and Edwardian suburban villas and terraces with some modern infill. Portmore Park Road it describes as very late Victorian and Edwardian houses on large plots, set out on an informal layout of roads. A house of that age does not come with a drawing you can rely on. What the wall is carrying is confirmed by opening up, and the engineer sizes the steel from what is actually there rather than from what the layout suggests.
At Templemere the wall may not be holding anything
Elmbridge Borough Council's Templemere character appraisal records cross wall construction with brick flank walls, so the side walls carry the load and the front and rear elevations do not. The same appraisal records that the houses have open plan interiors with the circulation space in the core, so the ground floors were designed open from the start. That cuts both ways. A partition may come out with no steel at all, and a wall you assumed was a partition may be the flank wall. The engineer confirms it either way before we price the work.
Making good the brickwork at Monument Green
Crown Terrace, nos. 28 to 33 Monument Green, is dated 1884 and is built in polychrome brickwork. The red brick walls are enlivened by cream and black bricks used for quoins and string courses. Work that touches an elevation like that has to go back to match, and matching polychrome brick is a sourcing job as much as a bricklaying one. Inside, the same care applies to the plaster line and the floor level either side of a new beam. We agree the making good standard with you in writing before we start.
- Nib walls and piers formed where the engineer requires them
- Downstand and flush beam options priced at quotation stage
- Electrics, pipework and radiators diverted out of the wall
- Assessment of whether a wall is load-bearing
- Ceiling reinstatement and level correction across the opening
Trusted Load-Bearing Wall Removal in Weybridge
The answer differs house by house. Cross wall construction at Templemere and late Victorian and Edwardian villas sit inside the same postcode, and what is carrying the floor above is not the same question in each. So we do not price a knock through from a photograph. We look, the engineer calculates, then the price is fixed. Fully insured, with one point of contact from the survey to the final inspection.
- We establish what the wall actually carries before we quote
- Founder-led team with 30+ years of hands-on experience
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
- Padstones and bearings detailed at both ends of the opening
- Pipework, cables and radiators diverted before demolition
- Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes