An RSJ is the steel beam that carries the load once a wall is taken out. Our part is the survey, the propping, the beam, the padstones, the making good and the inspections that sign the work off. We appoint a structural engineer for the calculations and build to what they issue. We never write those calculations ourselves. This page sets out what an RSJ job on an Aylesbury property involves, and who checks it.
Building control for an RSJ in Aylesbury goes to Buckinghamshire Council
Buckinghamshire Council runs its own building control service, taking full plans applications, building notices and regularisation applications. Which route suits your beam depends on how much design detail exists before work starts. A full plans application puts the engineer's drawings in front of a surveyor first. A building notice covers smaller scale work. Regularisation is the route for work already carried out without approval.
The council asks to be told in writing at least two working days before building work starts. It asks for site inspections to be booked the day before they are needed, and carries them out between 10am and 3pm, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. That window shapes the programme around a steel. We make the application and book the inspections so the propping, the bearings and the beam are each seen at the right stage.
What the beam bears on depends on how the wall was built
A steel beam concentrates the load of everything above it onto two small bearing points, so the brickwork under those points has to be understood before the steel is ordered. Buckinghamshire Council's adopted conservation area appraisal records wall finishes on Aylesbury buildings from the seventeenth century through to the nineteenth century as predominantly red brick, laid in English and Flemish bond. It records vitrified brick as used for quoining and diapering.
The same appraisal records that twentieth century buildings stray away from red brick, using a darker brown brick, usually in stretcher bond. A solid bonded wall and a later cavity wall behave differently under a padstone. We open up, record what is actually there, and pass it to the structural engineer we appoint. The beam and the bearings are then sized from the wall in front of them rather than from an assumption.
The bedrock under central Aylesbury changes across short distances
British Geological Survey 1:50,000 mapping shows Portland Stone Formation limestone as the bedrock beneath St Mary's Square, Temple Square and Kingsbury in Aylesbury Old Town. The bedrock boundary between the Portland Group limestones and the Kimmeridge Clay mudstone runs through central Aylesbury. The mapped bedrock can therefore change within a few hundred metres in the town centre.
That matters where a beam needs a new pier or a pad foundation rather than a bearing on existing brickwork. What sits under that new load is a question to answer before the steel is ordered, not after. Where the engineer calls for a trial hole at the bearing point, we dig it and record what comes out, so the design follows the ground.
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Party Wall Act 1996 notices and awards handled
- Temporary propping and staged, controlled demolition
- Making good, plastering and finishing around the new steel
- Lintel and catnic support to smaller openings
Trusted RSJ and Steel Beam Installation in Aylesbury
We are a contractor, not an engineering practice. For an Aylesbury beam we appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations they issue, and hold the propping until the steel is in and bearing correctly. Buckinghamshire Council runs its own building control service, and we make that application and book the inspections around our own programme rather than leaving them to you. That gives you one point of contact for the engineer, the steel, the brickwork and the sign off. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and quotations are free and without obligation.
- Steel sized to the engineer's design, never guessed on site
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- Beams boxed and fire protected to the approved detail