Open-Plan Conversions Stevenage

An open plan ground floor is a structural job with a kitchen fit at the end of it. A wall comes out, a beam takes its place, and services, heating and floor levels all follow the new layout. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations, and coordinate the building control inspections from application to sign off.

For Stevenage, on London-derived ranges a knock-through finished as one room typically costs £3,000 to £8,000 or more, including the steel beam; Hertfordshire work generally runs below that. GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Stevenage: the structural engineer we appoint designs the steel, we install it, and building control signs it off.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Stevenage address, covering the walls, services and floor levels, and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with Hertfordshire Building Control or an approved inspector. On a shared wall you serve the party wall notice as building owner; we supply the drawings.
3. Props in, opening cut, beam on padstones; then floors, heating and electrics are joined up.
4. Building control inspects the steel before it is covered. We finish the room, and the completion certificate follows.

Terraced houses set the shape of the work

At the 2021 census, 16,848 of Stevenage's 36,513 households lived in a terraced house, which is 46.1 per cent, against 23.0 per cent for England. Between 1945 and 1972 the borough gained 21,190 of its dwellings, 55.1 per cent of the council tax stock, against 25.5 per cent for England and Wales.

A terrace opens front to back rather than side to side. The through room is formed between two party walls, so the beam runs across the house and the bearings land on the party walls or on new piers. The party wall notices you serve on both neighbours as building owner belong at the front of the programme, and we give you the engineer's drawings they need.

Housing in Stevenage

Take the 38,430 or so homes the valuation list gives Stevenage: 24% flats, 76% houses, 2% from before 1919, 1% interwar and 96% post-war. 52% of homes here are terraced; opening up a terrace in Stevenage usually lands one beam end on the party wall.

Broadwater terraces need a different opening method

Work began on Broadwater in 1953, and the council records that some of the first houses built there were Wimpey no fines homes, cast by pouring concrete for the outer structure into large reusable moulds in one operation. The council describes the two storey terraced housing there as built in terraces of six to ten houses with long rear gardens.

A poured concrete wall cannot be needled like brickwork, so the temporary support and the bearing detail are designed around that construction. Long rear gardens give room for the skip, the spoil and the materials, which keeps a through job moving instead of stopping for access.

If the through room also extends at the back

Stevenage's Design Guidance SPD, at Principle HD8, allows a single storey rear extension to project 4 metres from the rear elevation, reduced to 3.5 metres where it would sit within 1 metre of a shared boundary.

Where the wall removal and the rear extension are one project, the beam layout and the new rear opening are designed together. That avoids a second steel being cut in later, and keeps one set of calculations covering the whole ground floor.

• Making good, plastering and decorating the finished space
• Open-plan kitchen-diner conversions
• Radiator relocation and underfloor heating in the new layout

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 12 statistical areas in Stevenage. Counts rounded by the VOA.

For the wider picture around open-plan conversion in Stevenage, see home renovation in Stevenage, open-plan conversion in Hitchin, builders in London, garage conversions, open-plan conversion across London and RSJ & Load-Bearing Walls.

Why Stevenage Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

An open plan conversion is sequencing as much as structure: temporary support, beam, services, plaster, then the fit out. We run those in order with one point of contact, so trades are not waiting on each other in your house. Indicative London ranges from MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026, put a full knock through, including wall removal, the engineer's fee and making good, at £2,500 to £6,500 and above. We appoint and coordinate the structural engineer, build to the calculations, and coordinate building control. Fully insured, free no obligation quotations.

Reviewed jobs near Stevenage

1 MyBuilder review from Stevenage, with each customer's own job title:

• Kitchen worktops, Stevenage, 24 Jun 2021 (5 out of 5)

Read all 31 on our reviews page.

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.