Open-plan in Cockfosters usually means one of two things: knocking the two rear rooms together, or opening the whole back wall onto a garden that runs a long way down the plot. Both are structural jobs. GS Renovation appoints the engineer, installs the steel to the calculations issued and takes the work through Barnet building control.
Full width rear openings on deep Cockfosters plots
The gardens here are long and the frontages wide, which is why the Cockfosters version of open-plan runs across the back of the house rather than down a side return. A four or five metre sliding door set into the rear elevation needs a beam spanning that full width, and because the wall is cavity built the load comes down the inner leaf only. Padstones bear on the inner skin, a cavity tray goes in over the opening, and a proprietary closer keeps the cold bridge out of the reveals.
Where the span is too great for a single beam at a sensible depth, the engineer will usually specify a goalpost frame, two posts bolted to a head beam, so the structure is stable without relying on the remaining brickwork for restraint. Each post then needs a foundation of its own. On a 1930s timber ground floor that means breaking through the boards and the void beneath, digging a pad and casting it before the frame is lifted in. It is not something you can leave until second fix.
Knocking through inside an EN4 semi
The internal version is simpler but still engineered. Taking out the wall between the rear reception and the original kitchen turns two rooms into one, and that wall almost always carries the first floor. We prop, remove the masonry in stages, seat the beam on its padstones and strike the props in the specified order. Once the wall has gone, the two floor levels rarely match, because the back of a 1930s Cockfosters house was often rebuilt in concrete while the front stayed on timber joists.
That step is usually ten to twenty millimetres and it has to be levelled with a screed or a ply overlay before any flooring is laid, otherwise a single board run stops at an ugly threshold strip halfway across the new room. Heating needs rethinking too, since the radiator that sat on the removed wall has nowhere to go and one large space behaves quite differently from two small ones. If you want the zones kept, a steel framed glazed screen divides without closing the room down.
- Heat loss and acoustic considerations before the wall comes out
- Making good, plastering and decorating the finished space
- Structural engineer coordination and building control sign-off
- Beam depth checked against existing ceiling heights
- Open-plan kitchen-diner conversions
Why Cockfosters Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
Cockfosters houses open up well because the plots are deep and the back of the house faces a proper garden. GS Renovation handles the whole sequence: engineer appointed, pad foundations dug where posts land on the timber floor, steel installed to specification, Barnet building control inspecting the bearings, then floors levelled and the room finished. One team, one point of contact, 30+ years of hands-on experience behind it.
- Heating and radiator positions reworked for the new layout
- Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
- Structure and finishes delivered by one team on one programme
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Free follow-up visit after completion if anything needs attention