An RSJ is the steel beam that carries the load once a wall is taken out. Our part is the survey, the temporary support, the beam, the padstones, the making good and the inspections that sign it off. We appoint a structural engineer for the calculations and build to what they issue. We never write those calculations ourselves. This page sets out what an RSJ job on a Hitchin house involves, and who checks it.
Building control for a Hitchin beam goes to Hertfordshire Building Control
Building control for a Hitchin beam is handled by Hertfordshire Building Control, because North Herts Council does not deliver building control in house. The council states that building control services in North Hertfordshire are provided by Hertfordshire Building Control, the council owned company that carries out the local authority building control function. Hertfordshire Building Control Limited is owned by North Herts Council along with seven other Hertfordshire local authorities.
Applications can be made direct or through the Planning Portal, and the building control telephone number is 01438 879990. We make that application and book the inspections around the steel going in. The temporary support, the bearings and the beam are each seen at the right stage, rather than after the plaster is back on.
The bearing at each end of a beam lands on one of four mapped bedrocks
British Geological Survey mapping shows four different bedrock formations beneath the built up area of Hitchin. They are the West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation, the Zig Zag Chalk Formation, the Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation and New Pit Chalk Formation undifferentiated, and the Gault Formation. Beneath the town centre the mapped bedrock is Zig Zag Chalk, part of the Grey Chalk Subgroup. At Hitchin Hill the mapped bedrock is the Gault Formation, a mudstone, rather than chalk.
That matters at the ends of the steel. A beam concentrates everything above it onto two small bearing points, and those points carry down through the wall to whatever is beneath. Where the engineer calls for a new pier or a pad, what sits under it is a question to settle before the steel is ordered. We open up, record what is there and pass it to the engineer.
How the steel gets in is decided by the frontage it has to pass
A beam is carried in by hand once the lorry has gone, so the street and the frontage set the method. The council's character statement records Benslow Lane as contained by terraced houses two or three storeys high, dating from the mid to late 19th century. It describes Trevor Road as a small cul de sac of more modestly sized terraced houses in red brick under natural slate roofs, with frontages as narrow as one window.
Nos. 43 to 46 Walsworth Road are recorded as an imposing three storey terrace of about 1875, with gables facing the street and canted two storey bay windows. A narrow frontage, a three storey load path and a tight hallway each change the method rather than the outcome. We agree the delivery point, the carry route and the propping sequence with you before the order goes in.
- Bearing checks into party walls and shared masonry
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Making good, plastering and finishing around the new steel
- Flitch beams where a slimmer steel and timber solution suits
- Goalpost frames where two walls meet at a corner
Why Hitchin Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
We are a contractor, not an engineering practice. For a Hitchin beam we appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations they issue, and hold the temporary support until the steel is in and bearing correctly. The building control application goes to Hertfordshire Building Control rather than to the council, and we make it and book the inspections around our own programme. That gives you one point of contact for the engineer, the steel, the brickwork and the sign off. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured and registered in England, company number 14611254. Quotations are free and carry no obligation.
- Steel ordered cut, drilled and primed to the schedule
- Founder-led team with 30+ years of hands-on experience
- Levels and deflection checked before the props come out
- Building control inspected at the propping and beam stages
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on