GS Renovation installs steel beams throughout New Barnet, in Victorian terraces where there is no side access and every beam has to come in through the front door. The steel is sized by a structural engineer we appoint, bears on padstones in sound masonry, and is inspected by Barnet Council building control before anything is closed up.
Getting steel into a mid terrace in EN4
On a detached house you carry the beam down the side and in through the back. A mid terrace in New Barnet has no side, so the beam comes through the front door, round the newel post at the bottom of the stairs and into the room, or in through a sash opening with the sashes taken out. That constraint shapes the design. A five metre 203 by 133 universal beam runs at roughly 25 kilos a metre, so it is a 125 kilo lift, and the turn at the foot of a terrace staircase decides whether it fits.
Where a single section will not physically get in, the engineer has options and they are not all equal. Two lighter beams bolted side by side can be carried in separately and made up in the room. A flitch of steel plate sandwiched between timber is another route where the load is modest. A spliced beam is possible but the splice detail has to be designed, not improvised on site. We raise the access question at survey, before a section is specified that nobody can get past the front door.
Bearings, notices and inspection in New Barnet
The bearing is where beams go wrong. In an EN4 terrace the pocket is cut into a party wall built of soft yellow stock laid in lime mortar, which will not take a point load on its own, so the engineer specifies a padstone and a bearing length and both get checked before the steel goes in. If the brickwork behind the pocket is poor we cut back and rebuild in engineering brick rather than pack the padstone up. Propping stays in until the packing is tight and the props come out in a stated order.
Cutting a pocket into a party wall is notifiable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. In a mid terrace both ends may land in a shared wall, which means two adjoining owners, and around New Barnet station some of those neighbours are flats with a freeholder and a managing agent behind them. You serve the notices as building owner; we prepare the structural information behind them and work to the agreed method. Barnet Council building control inspects the beam and bearings before plaster goes anywhere near them.
- Load-bearing wall removal and knock-throughs
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Steel columns, base plates and bolted connections
- Steel delivered cut, drilled and primed to the engineer's schedule
- Making good, plastering and finishing around the new steel
Trusted RSJ and Steel Beam Installation in New Barnet
New Barnet owners choose GS Renovation for steel because we treat access and bearing as design problems rather than site surprises. The engineer is appointed by us, the beam is sized and detailed before we quote, the party wall information is ready for your notices, and Barnet building control inspects at the right stage. Founder led, fully insured, with 30+ years of hands-on structural experience.
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
- Party Wall Act notices served where a beam bears into a shared wall
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Restricted London access planned before the steel arrives
- Materials priced at options, so you choose the finish