GS Renovation installs RSJs in Hemel Hempstead houses, from a single opening between two rooms to a run of steel carrying a whole ground floor. We never write the calculations ourselves. We appoint a structural engineer, build to the design that comes back, and coordinate the building control inspections that sign the beam off.
Building control for a steel beam is not Dacorum Borough Council
Dacorum Borough Council does not run its own building control service. Building control for the borough is provided by Hertfordshire Building Control, contactable on 01438 879990. That matters for your steel, because the people who check the beam, the padstones and the bearings sit in a separate organisation from the planning department. We handle that side for you, so you are not chasing two bodies while the ground floor is propped.
The engineer we appoint produces the calculations and the beam schedule. Those calculations go in before the wall comes down, not after it. We then build to that design exactly, including padstone sizes and bearing lengths, because a beam that is right on paper and short on bearing is still a fail at inspection.
The notifications a beam has to go through
Hertfordshire Building Control requires commencement to be notified through the Submit a Plan portal before building work begins. That notice goes in before the first prop is set, and it is one of the things we coordinate rather than leave with you. Skipping it is a good way to stop a job on day one with a steel sitting on the drive.
At the other end, Hertfordshire Building Control requires 24 hours notice for a final inspection. Book that around the plastering, not after it. The inspector needs to see the beam, its bearings and the padstones while they are still visible, so we sequence the making good to follow the inspection rather than hide it. The completion paperwork is what a buyer's solicitor asks for years later.
What the wall turns out to be made of in the Old Town
In Hemel Hempstead Old Town it can be a timber frame rather than masonry. The Old Town character statement records timber framed domestic and commercial dwellings there from the late 15th century to the early 18th century. It also records that exposed timber framing is rare, frames having been modernised with the addition of 18th or 19th century brick skins.
That changes how a steel goes in. A brick skin added to a historic frame is not necessarily carrying what the frame is carrying, so the load path has to be established before anything is cut. We open up in stages, stop, and get the engineer back to look at what is actually there. Where the building is listed or inside the conservation area, the consent position is checked before the opening is designed.
- Load-bearing wall removal and knock-throughs
- Steel delivered cut, drilled and primed to the engineer's schedule
- Building control applications and inspection sign-off
- Structural openings for open-plan living
- Goalpost frames where two walls meet at a corner
Why Choose GS Renovation in Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead homeowners choose GS Renovation for steelwork because one contractor carries the whole chain: the structural engineer we appoint, the propping, the beam and its padstones, and the building control inspections from commencement notice through to final. We are a contractor, not an engineering practice, and we say so plainly. GS Renovation is fully insured and registered in England, company number 14611254, and you deal with one point of contact throughout.
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Temporary propping in place before anything is cut
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- Steel sized to the engineer's design, never guessed on site