An open plan conversion is a wall removal with a finish attached. The structure decides what is possible: a beam sized by an engineer, on bearings designed for the load. Then the ceiling, floor, heating and lighting have to read as one room rather than two. We appoint the engineer, build to the calculations and coordinate building control. This page sets out how that runs on an Aylesbury property.
Inside the conservation area, both new openings and extensions need permission
Buckinghamshire Council's adopted appraisal lists partial demolition, including new openings in external elevations, among the works needing planning permission inside the Aylesbury Conservation Area. An open plan scheme that finishes at a rear elevation, whether with a wider set of doors or with a small extension, meets that requirement.
The same appraisal states that inside the area any extension needs planning permission other than a single storey rear extension of 4 metres or less, reduced to 3 metres or less if the house is terraced or semi detached. Those two figures decide whether an application sits in front of the work. We establish which one applies to your house before anything is designed.
At Berryfields the houses were built to a design that still exists
The Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan records the Berryfields Major Development Area north west of Aylesbury as a 195 hectare site including 3,372 new dwellings, with 2,885 homes built up to 2020. A house built in that period went up to a set of engineered drawings, and it may still carry a builder's warranty.
The adopted conservation area appraisal records that twentieth century buildings stray away from red brick, using a darker brown brick, usually in stretcher bond. Where the wall being opened is a cavity wall, the beam has to deal with both leaves, and whether that is one beam or two is the engineer's decision rather than a site one. On a newer house we also check the original design and any warranty terms before a wall is touched.
The older terraces near the station and in Walton are a different job
Buckinghamshire Council's appraisal describes Ripon Street and Granville Street as a mixture of mostly two storey terraced houses, semi detached villas and a handful of detached buildings, mostly red brick with stucco detailing. Bay windows are described as common, some to ground floor and others rising two storeys. Opening up the ground floor of a house like that can mean working beneath a wall that also carries a bay.
The appraisal describes Walton as terraced housing, a mixture of planned nineteenth century terraces west of Walton Street and piecemeal eighteenth and nineteenth century frontages including Walton Terrace to the east, many concealing earlier structures. In a terrace the beam has to land somewhere, and that can be a neighbour question as well as a structural one. We are not party wall surveyors, and where a party wall matter arises we say so early rather than late.
- Ventilation and extraction planned for an open kitchen
- Steel beam installation to remove the dividing wall
- Lighting, heating and electrical reconfiguration
- Level flooring and threshold removal across the whole space
- Flush beam detailing where a downstand would look wrong
The GS Renovation Difference in Aylesbury
Open plan is where structure and finish meet, and the order decides the result. Steel first, to the structural engineer's design, then floor, ceiling, heating and lighting made continuous across what were two rooms. Run the other way round and the finish gets cut about to suit the structure. We hold that sequence with one team and one point of contact, appoint the engineer, and coordinate the building control application and inspections. We are not party wall surveyors and we do not produce structural calculations. The company is fully insured and quotations are free and without obligation.
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
- Broken-plan and Crittall-style options priced alongside full open-plan
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on
- Paperwork and certificates handed over for when you sell
- Structure and finishes delivered by one team on one programme