An RSJ is the steel beam that carries the load once a wall or a section of wall is taken out. Our part is the survey, the propping, the beam, the padstones, the making good and the building control inspections. We appoint a structural engineer for the calculations and build to what they issue. We never produce those calculations ourselves. This page sets out what an RSJ job on a Brentwood property involves, and who checks it.
A Brentwood beam is notified to the council by portal or by email
Building regulations applications in Brentwood can be submitted through the My Brentwood portal at my.brentwood.gov.uk. The forms can also be downloaded as PDFs and emailed to buildingsurveying@brentwood.gov.uk. We make that submission and keep the correspondence, so you are not chasing paperwork while the props are holding your ceiling up.
Brentwood Borough Council's published list of building control inspection stages includes structural beams and columns prior to encasement. Your steel is therefore looked at before it is boxed in or plastered over. We programme the plastering around that inspection rather than the other way round, because a beam covered too early has to be uncovered again.
Behind a High Street front in Brentwood there can be a timber frame
The council's conservation area appraisal records that behind the 19th century fronts of nos. 108 to 114 Brentwood High Street there are the remains of timber frames. It states it is probable that there are other survivals in the High Street concealed by later brickwork. Those four properties are all grade II listed and all timber framed.
When nos. 101 to 105 Brentwood High Street were rebuilt, the unsuspected remains of a significant timber framed building were found, surviving only at first floor level. The appraisal dates that building to 1615. A frame changes where a beam can bear and how load passes down to the ground. We open up and record what is actually there before the engineer sizes any section.
The ground under the town centre ridge is layered, so a bearing has to reach something able to take it
Brentwood town centre stands on a ridge of high ground formed by the Claygate Beds and Bagshot Sands overlying the London Clay. A steel beam concentrates the load of everything above it onto two small bearing points, and those points have to carry down through the structure to ground able to take them.
Where your engineer calls for a new pier or a pad foundation, what sits beneath it is a question to answer before the steel is ordered. We dig the trial hole, record what comes out of it and pass that to the engineer. The section size follows from that, not from a standard detail.
- Flitch beams where a slimmer steel and timber solution suits
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Structural engineer's calculations arranged and followed
- Building control applications and inspection sign-off
- Lintel and catnic support to smaller openings
Why Brentwood Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
We are a contractor, not an engineering practice. For a Brentwood beam we appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations they issue, and hold the propping until the steel is in and bearing correctly. The building control submission and the inspection bookings are ours to make, and the beam is presented for inspection before anything encases it. 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 rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder. Quotations are free and carry no obligation.
- High-density concrete padstones bedded at every bearing
- Levels and deflection checked before the props come out
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Temporary propping in place before anything is cut
- Structural engineer instructed and coordinated on your behalf