An open plan conversion is a wall removal with a fit out attached: the beam, the floor levels, the ceiling line, the services that ran inside the wall, and the decoration. The structural part is designed by an engineer we appoint, and we build to what they issue. This page covers what an open plan job on a Grays property involves and where the consents fall.
Whether a building regulations application is needed depends on what the wall carries
Thurrock Council's internal alterations guidance lists removal of an internal non-load bearing wall as work that does not require a building regulations application. A stud partition between two reception rooms can fall there.
Once a beam is involved the position changes. The council's building control notification list names steel beams as a stage at which you must notify it during the works, so the steel is seen while it is exposed rather than after the ceiling closes. We establish which wall you actually have at survey, not from a floor plan.
Chafford Hundred was built from 1988 onwards
Construction at Chafford Hundred began in 1988, and the first homes were completed in 1989. About 5,600 houses and flats have been built there since 1989, on 353 acres of brownfield land. The 2021 census recorded 1,080 detached households in the Chafford and North Stifford ward, out of 2,843 households.
A house of that period is not built like a Victorian terrace, and the load path in one is not the load path in the other. What we do about it is the same in both cases. We open up, record what is actually there, and let the structural engineer we appoint size the beam from that rather than from an assumption about the estate.
The Grays wards count their terraced and semi-detached households in the thousands
The 2021 census recorded 1,307 terraced households in the Grays Riverside ward and 1,042 terraced households in the Grays Thurrock ward. In the Stifford Clays ward it recorded 1,165 semi-detached households, out of 2,563 households.
Those are different opening jobs. A terrace has a party wall on each side and a narrow plan, so a knock through tends to run front to back. A semi-detached house has one party wall and a flank wall that may be carrying load. We survey the joist direction and the structure above before a layout is fixed.
- Kitchen island services routed through the new floor
- Heat loss and acoustic considerations before the wall comes out
- Radiator relocation and underfloor heating in the new layout
- Rooflights and glazed roofs to bring light deep into the plan
- Broken-plan layouts and Crittall-style glazed dividers
The GS Renovation Difference in Grays
Open plan work is a structural job with a finishing job attached, and the order matters as much as the specification. We appoint the structural engineer and make the building regulations application to Thurrock Council where one is needed. We prop and install the steel, then hand the room to the plasterers and the electricians in a sequence that does not double back on itself. One point of contact runs it from the survey to the completion inspection. We do not produce structural calculations. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and quotations are free and without obligation.
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Beam depth checked against ceiling heights before you commit
- Heating and radiator positions reworked for the new layout
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
- The house kept usable while the opening is formed in stages