RSJ and Steel Beam Installation Hammersmith

GS Renovation installs RSJs and steel beams across Hammersmith, from the bay-fronted Victorian and Edwardian terraces near the River Thames to the converted flats and post-war blocks around W6. We remove load-bearing walls safely, prop the floors above and open up these houses and flats without compromising the fabric of the building.

In Hammersmith, 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 Hammersmith.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Hammersmith address and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with Hammersmith and Fulham Council 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 for Hammersmith terraced homes

The typical W6 house is a bay-fronted Victorian or Edwardian terrace with a rear closet wing and a side return, and the walls between the front and middle reception rooms are usually load-bearing. Before any steel goes in, a structural engineer sizes the beam for the actual loads above, whether that is a single storey or the full stack of floors and roof carried by a slender terraced wall.

We install the RSJ onto engineered padstones that spread the load into the remaining masonry, then remove the temporary props once the beam is bearing correctly. Building control inspects the steel and the padstone bearings before they are covered and signs off the finished opening, so it is documented and safe for the life of the house.

Housing in Hammersmith

On the valuation list Hammersmith counts about 15,040 homes, 77% flats and 23% houses; 56% predate 1919, 9% are interwar and 34% post-war. Most homes here are flats, and a beam in a leasehold flat in Hammersmith needs the freeholder's licence for alterations, since the lease usually keeps the structure with the freeholder.

A steel beam in a Hammersmith flat and the homes above it

77% of homes in Hammersmith are flats, so the wall you want replaced with steel is more often inside a converted house or a block than a whole house. That changes the survey. The load the beam picks up is decided by what stands on the wall in the flats above: a partition lined up over it, a bathroom, a chimney breast. The structural engineer we appoint can only size the steel properly after seeing those rooms, so we ask for access to the upstairs flats early, through the freeholder or the neighbours directly. A design drawn from your flat alone is a design based on guesses.

The same neighbours are affected while the steel goes in. Props may need to stand on the floor you share with the flat below, and the new bearings can cut into walls that carry the homes above. Hammersmith and Fulham Council's planning guidance strongly recommends following the Party Wall Act 1996 before any work affecting party walls, and in a converted Hammersmith house the separating floors come under it as well. Any notice is served by you as building owner, with the engineer's drawings. Photographing the ceilings and walls of the adjoining flats before any cutting starts is the simplest protection for everyone.

Party wall notices on shared Hammersmith walls

Because Hammersmith terraces sit in continuous rows, the dividing wall between you and your neighbour is almost always a shared party wall, and the chimney breasts and stacks often sit within it. Cutting a beam pocket into that wall, or removing a chimney breast, brings the work under the Party Wall Act, so as building owner you serve notice on the adjoining owner before we start.

We give you the engineer's drawings and a programme so you can serve the correct notices in good time, and we work with any party wall surveyor appointed for the neighbouring property. On these older W6 walls we also allow for soft lime mortar, rubble-filled construction and hidden flues, which is why the engineer's design and our controlled, staged demolition matter so much on a terraced home.

How far ahead the job needs booking

The steel itself takes a day to install and the calendar around it takes considerably longer. The engineer needs a site visit and then time to produce the design. The beam is cut to length and fabricated to that design, which is not something a merchant keeps on a shelf. Building control needs notice, and where a party wall is involved the statutory notice period runs for two months before work can begin.

Run one after another that is a slow start. Run in parallel it is not, which is why we get the engineer booked at the point you decide to go ahead, and you serve the notices while the design is still being drawn. Owners in W6 working to a fixed date usually want the wall out and the plaster dry well beforehand, and the honest answer is to start the paperwork a couple of months before you want the work done.

• Structural engineer's calculations arranged and followed
• Party wall process explained, and the beam built to the award
• Structural openings for open-plan living

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Hammersmith Broadway, Brook Green, Ravenscourt Park North and Ravenscourt Park South. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up RSJ and steel beam installation in Hammersmith, it may help to read home renovation in Hammersmith, RSJ and steel beam installation across Hammersmith and Fulham, building control sign-off for a steel beam, party walls and steel beams, our London RSJ and steel beam installation page and Wall Tie Failure.

Why Hammersmith Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

Homeowners across Hammersmith choose GS Renovation because we handle the whole steel job as one accountable team, from the engineer's calculations to propping, demolition and building control sign-off. With our founder's 30+ years on the tools, we understand how these Victorian walls carry load and how to open them up cleanly and safely.

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.