GS Renovation creates open-plan and broken-plan spaces in New Malden's interwar homes, turning boxy 1930s layouts into flowing kitchen-diners and knock-throughs. Working across KT3 and out towards Surbiton for over 30 years, we combine the structural engineering these houses need with the finish that makes a family space genuinely work day to day.
Open-plan living in New Malden's interwar houses
The 1930s semis around New Malden were built as a series of separate rooms: a front reception, a rear dining room and a compartmentalised kitchen at the back. On these deep suburban plots there is real scope to knock the rear reception into the kitchen for a big kitchen-diner, or to open the two front-to-back rooms into one light-filled space that runs the length of the ground floor.
The catch is that the dividing wall is very often load-bearing, so a knock-through is a structural project, not just a bit of demolition. A structural engineer sizes a steel beam to carry the load, the beam bears onto padstones, and we prop, demolish in stages and set the steel before removing any support. For broken-plan schemes we can frame a Crittall-style glazed divider to zone the space without closing it off.
Consents for open-plan work in KT3
An internal open-plan conversion in New Malden is controlled under the Building Regulations, not planning. You do not need planning permission to knock rooms together inside the house; Kingston Council building control inspects the propping, padstones and beam and issues the completion certificate. Planning only applies to external alterations, and only conservation-area or listed properties, uncommon among these standard interwar semis, need that additional consent.
Since the house is semi-detached, its flank wall is a party wall shared with the neighbour. Where a new open-plan beam bears into that shared wall, the Party Wall Act applies and notice must be served on the adjoining owner. We identify this at design stage and manage the notices alongside the engineering, so the knock-through, the consents and the plastered, decorated finish all come from a single team.
- Bi-fold and sliding door openings onto the garden
- Level flooring and threshold removal across the whole space
- Flush beam detailing where a downstand would look wrong
- Utility and boot room space carved out of the new layout
- Open-plan kitchen-diner conversions
Why Choose GS Renovation in New Malden
GS Renovation is the right choice for open-plan conversions in New Malden because we run the whole project in-house: engineer-designed beams on padstones where the semi's flank wall is shared, Kingston Council building control sign-off, and a clean, well-finished space, whether that is a full knock-through, a kitchen-diner or a Crittall broken-plan divider. 30+ years in KT3 behind every job.
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Cooking smells and extraction planned into an open kitchen
- Heat loss and acoustics considered before the wall comes out
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors