GS Renovation installs RSJs and steel beams throughout Golders Green, where the bay-fronted Victorian and Edwardian terraces of NW11 were built with solid load-bearing walls. With over 30 years of structural experience across North London, we remove internal walls and chimney breasts safely, sizing every beam to a structural engineer's calculations.
Removing load-bearing walls in Golders Green
Most terraces in NW11 have a solid brick wall between the front and rear reception rooms, and another between the kitchen and the closet wing at the back. Opening these up for a through lounge or a kitchen-diner means transferring the load above onto a steel beam. Our structural engineer calculates the size, and we cast concrete padstones so the beam bears safely onto the surrounding brickwork.
Before any brickwork comes down we install temporary props, Acrow props on needle beams, to carry the structure while we work. Demolition is staged and controlled, never rushed, so the floors above stay supported at every moment. Once the RSJ is seated and packed, we remove the props, fireproof the steel, and arrange for Barnet Council's building control to inspect and sign off the completed structural work.
Party wall matters on Golders Green terraces
Because Golders Green terraces share their dividing walls with the house next door, cutting a beam pocket into that party wall brings the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 into play. You must serve notice on the neighbouring owner before work begins, usually two months for a party structure notice. We flag this early so the paperwork runs alongside the structural design rather than holding up the build.
Chimney breasts are the other common job in these homes. Removing a breast in a reception room or bedroom takes weight off the stack above, which then needs supporting on a gallows bracket or a beam. Where that stack is shared with the neighbour, party wall consent applies again. We handle the engineer's calculations, the props, the steelwork and the building control inspections as one coordinated package.
Beams under a converted loft
A great many NW11 terraces now have a loft conversion, and that changes the sums downstairs. A converted loft adds a floor of live load, new steels bearing somewhere, and often a dormer, and much of that weight ends up travelling down the same spine wall you are asking us to remove. A beam sized on the assumption of an empty roof space would be undersized in that situation, which is why we ask before we measure.
So the engineer is told what is above before anything is calculated. We open up to find where the loft steels land, check whether they bear on the wall in question or on the flank, and pass that on. It occasionally means the new beam is heavier than a neighbour's on an apparently identical house. That is not caution for its own sake; it is the correct answer for your building rather than for the street, and building control will expect the same.
- Bearing checks into party walls and shared masonry
- Structural openings for open-plan living
- Flitch beams where a slimmer steel and timber solution suits
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Lintel and catnic support to smaller openings
Trusted RSJ and Steel Beam Installation in Golders Green
Golders Green homeowners choose GS Renovation because we treat structural work as the serious job it is. Every RSJ is sized by a qualified structural engineer, propped and staged properly, and signed off by Barnet Council building control. With 30+ years across NW11 and neighbouring Finchley and Hendon, we coordinate around the party wall award and deliver a safe, inspected result.
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- High-density concrete padstones bedded at every bearing
- Party Wall Act notices served where a beam bears into a shared wall
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes