GS Renovation installs RSJs and steel beams across Bexley, from the 1930s semi-detached houses of Bexleyheath and Welling to the interwar family homes around Sidcup. With more than 30 years of structural experience across DA5, DA6, DA7 and DA15, we open up load-bearing walls safely, with engineer-sized steel and full building control sign-off.
Removing load-bearing walls in Bexley semis
The dividing wall between the front and back reception rooms in a Bexley 1930s semi is almost always load-bearing, carrying the floor joists and often a chimney breast above. To remove it we bring in a structural engineer to size the RSJ, set temporary props to take the load, then carry out staged demolition. The new beam bears onto concrete padstones at each end, spreading the weight safely down through the existing brickwork.
Because so many houses across DA6 and DA7 are semi-detached, one end of the beam frequently lands in the party wall shared with next door. That triggers the Party Wall Act, so you serve the correct notices on your neighbour before any cutting begins. Bexley Council building control inspects the steelwork and its bearings, and we arrange the completion certificate you will need when you eventually sell the house.
Steel beams for Bexley through-lounges
A popular project in Welling and Bexleyheath is joining the two separate reception rooms into a single through-lounge. The party wall between the semi and its neighbour stays put, but the internal spine wall comes out and a steel beam takes its place. We calculate the propping, protect the rest of the house from dust, and thread the beam in without disturbing the floors above or the roof structure over the room.
Larger interwar houses on the generous plots around Danson Park sometimes need a pair of beams, or a goalpost frame where two directions of load meet. Whatever the arrangement, the engineer's calculations set the steel size, the padstone dimensions and the connection details. We handle delivery of heavy sections into tight suburban driveways, the make-good plastering afterwards, and the building control inspection at every critical stage of the job.
Delivering and lifting steel on suburban plots
A wide interwar ground floor needs a substantial beam, and its weight is a practical problem long before it is a structural one. Where the span is long, the engineer may specify two lighter sections bolted together in place rather than one heavy member, simply because a single beam could not be carried into the room. On a Bexley semi with a driveway and a side gate the access is usually better than a terrace, so steel can come in down the side of the house.
We lift by hand where the weight allows and use lifting gear where it does not, working the beam up onto its padstones with the props still carrying the floor above. Steel arrives cut to length with plates and bolt holes already done, since drilling and welding in a finished house is neither quick nor clean. Delivery is booked for the morning of demolition day so a long lorry is not parked across a DA6 close any longer than it needs to be.
- Lintel and catnic support to smaller openings
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Steel delivered cut, drilled and primed to the engineer's schedule
- Steel columns, base plates and bolted connections
- Making good, plastering and finishing around the new steel
The GS Renovation Difference in Bexley
Bexley homeowners choose GS Renovation because we treat structural work as the serious job it is. One team manages the engineer, the propping, the steel and the building control inspections, so nothing falls between trades. With 30+ years opening up walls in interwar semis across the borough, we keep your home safe, tidy and properly certificated from first prop to final sign-off.
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Steel sized to the engineer's design, never guessed on site
- Steel ordered cut, drilled and primed to the schedule
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
- Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople
- Making good and plastering priced in, not treated as an extra