RSJ and Steel Beam Installation Greenwich

GS Renovation installs steel beams across Greenwich, backed by our founder's 30+ years on the tools, from post-war houses and flats across the borough to the Georgian townhouses near Greenwich Park and the Victorian terraces of Charlton and Woolwich. Many SE3, SE10 and SE18 homes have solid load-bearing walls and shared party walls, so removing them safely calls for engineered RSJs, careful propping and building control sign-off.

In Greenwich, a steel beam for one opening typically costs £1,500 to £4,000 fitted and signed off, or £2,500 to £6,500 or more for a full knock-through with the engineer's fee and making good (indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Greenwich.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Greenwich address and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 go in, the opening is cut and the beam is set on padstones, packed tight above.
4. Building control inspects the steel before it is covered. We make good, and the completion certificate follows.

Steel beams in Greenwich's older houses

Greenwich's Georgian and Regency townhouses were built with thick solid brick walls that carry the floors and roof above. When you want to open up a room in SE3 or SE10, that wall cannot simply come out. The structural engineer we appoint sizes an RSJ to carry the load, and we cast concrete padstones at each end so the beam bears properly onto sound masonry rather than crushing old brickwork.

Before any brick is cut we install temporary propping, needle the wall where required, and demolish in careful stages so nothing moves. Once the steel is seated and levelled, we build in the padstones, fireproof the beam and hand everything to building control for inspection. Across Woolwich, Charlton and Eltham this staged method keeps period floors and ceilings intact while the new opening is formed.

Housing in Greenwich

Greenwich's housing, as the Council Tax list records it, is about 125,080 homes: 45% houses, 55% flats, with 22% pre-1919, 17% interwar and 60% built since 1945. Where most homes are flats, a beam in a leasehold flat in Greenwich needs the freeholder's licence for alterations, since the lease usually keeps the structure with the freeholder.

Timing a Greenwich steel beam around Royal Greenwich inspection bookings

A beam job in Greenwich is paced by two pieces of notice, not by the steel. Royal Greenwich building control needs two days notice before any work under a building notice starts, and every site inspection has to be booked at least 2 working days before the visit. The inspection that matters most on a beam is the one with the ends open and the steel seated but not yet packed or boxed in. If that visit is requested only once the beam is up, the props stay where they are, the ceiling stays open and the room is out of use for two more working days.

So we book that inspection when the fabricator confirms the delivery date, and the notice goes in once the calculations from the structural engineer we appoint are in hand. The age of the house changes what gets looked at. In Greenwich 22% of homes were built before 1919. In a wall of that age the brick under each end can be soft, patched or hiding an old timber lintel, so the engineer may want it opened and seen before the padstone sizes are final. Leave a day for that look ahead of the booked visit, so a padstone change does not push the inspection back.

Party wall notices across Greenwich

In Greenwich terraces the wall between you and your neighbour is usually a shared party wall, and chimney stacks often straddle it. If your beam bears on that wall, the Party Wall Act applies and you serve your neighbour notice as building owner before work starts. We help you identify which walls are shared and give you the drawings the notice needs, so the notice period runs early rather than holding up the build in SE7 or SE18.

Listed status and conservation areas are common near Greenwich Park and Blackheath, and while internal steelwork is a building regulations matter rather than planning, in a listed building it also needs listed building consent before any work starts. We coordinate the engineer's calculations, the padstone details and the building control inspections, then finish the opening neatly so the new steel disappears into the room.

What changes once the steel is in

The first thing owners notice in a Greenwich house is that two rooms start behaving as one, and that has consequences beyond the view. Heat moves freely, so a room that used to warm quickly now takes longer, and radiators sized for two small spaces may not suit one large one. Sound carries from end to end, which matters a great deal if one half of the new space is a working kitchen. Insulation on the exposed rear wall is worth reviewing at the same time, while the room is stripped and the access is easy.

The room also gains something less obvious, which is usable wall. A dividing wall with a door in it wastes both sides of the doorway, and once it has gone the furniture can sit where it makes sense rather than where circulation allowed. In SE10 and SE3 houses with a good rear aspect, the biggest single change is that the garden becomes visible from the front of the house for the first time.

• Party wall process explained, and the beam built to the award
• Building control applications and inspection sign-off
• Bearing checks into party walls and shared masonry

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 35 statistical areas in Greenwich. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Next steps that tend to follow RSJ and steel beam installation in Greenwich: home renovation in Greenwich, our Greenwich area guide, building control sign-off for a steel beam, the Party Wall Act when a beam bears on a shared wall, our London RSJ and steel beam installation page and Architect or Structural Engineer?.

Why Choose GS Renovation in Greenwich

Homeowners across Greenwich choose GS Renovation because we treat structural work as the serious job it is. One team manages the engineer, the propping and building control, with our founder's 30+ years of removing walls. You get safe staged demolition, correctly sized steel and a clean, signed-off opening.

Reviewed jobs near Greenwich

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

• Replace kitchen extractor hob, Woolwich, 27 Apr 2024 (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.