RSJ and Steel Beam Installation Old Street

GS Renovation installs steel beams and RSJs across Old Street and the wider EC1 postcode, where post-war blocks, new-build apartments and a few converted warehouses make up almost all the housing around St Luke's and the roundabout. We prop and fit steelwork to the engineer's sizing safely, coordinating the leasehold approvals these Islington buildings demand.

In Old Street, 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 Old Street.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Old Street address and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with Islington 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.

Load-bearing walls in EC1 apartments

Post-war blocks and new-build apartments around Old Street are usually framed in concrete or steel, or built with concrete cross-walls, so what looks like a structural wall may be a non-loadbearing partition, or the reverse. We never assume. The engineer we appoint inspects the slab, checks the original build drawings where the managing agent can supply them, and confirms exactly what each wall carries before proposing a beam, a goalpost frame or a simple partition removal.

Party wall matters still arise where a conversion shares a structural wall with the flat next door. You serve the notices under the Party Wall Act as building owner, or your surveyor does, using the drawings we supply. A schedule of condition of the neighbouring flat is recorded before work, which protects you if a dispute ever surfaces, and we build to any award. Throughout, we work to the sound insulation standards these Islington blocks expect, isolating the new steel so footfall and impact noise do not carry between homes.

Housing in Old Street

Roughly 6,800 dwellings sit on the valuation list for Old Street. 1% are houses and 99% flats, and by age 16% predate 1919, 5% are interwar and 76% post-war. Where most homes are flats, a beam in a leasehold flat in Old Street needs the freeholder's licence for alterations, since the lease usually keeps the structure with the freeholder.

Where an RSJ fits in Old Street's post-war and older buildings

76% of homes in Old Street were built after 1945 and 16% before 1919. That split tells you where a steel beam is likely to be the answer. In the older buildings and the converted warehouses, walls of brick often carry timber floors, and a rolled steel beam on padstones is the normal way to open one up. In a post-war block the structure is more often concrete, and the structural engineer we appoint may find that the wall cannot be replaced by a beam at all, or only by a very different detail.

Whichever building it is, the approval route is set by how the flat is reached. Islington Council says a building notice cannot be used for residential premises with common areas, and an Old Street flat off a shared stair, lobby or lift is in that position. The beam therefore goes in on a full plans application, which Islington has a statutory obligation to process within five weeks, or two months if agreed. We order steel only after the approval, so the section on the delivery note matches the one the plan checker accepted.

Steel beams in Old Street's converted warehouses

Removing a load-bearing wall in one of Old Street's converted warehouses is rarely a simple knock-through. The exposed brick spine walls and cast-iron columns that give these EC1 spaces their character often carry real load, so every beam is sized by a structural engineer before a single brick moves. We prop the structure temporarily, demolish in safe stages, and lower the RSJ onto padstones that spread the weight into sound masonry.

Because most of these buildings are leasehold, the steelwork cannot begin until the freeholder's licence to alter is in place and the managing agent has approved the method. We supply the engineer's drawings and calculations for that application, book building control inspections, and time the noisiest cutting to suit block rules. The result is a clean opening signed off under building regulations, with minimal disruption to neighbouring flats.

• RSJ and structural steel beam installation
• Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
• Steel delivered cut, drilled and primed to the engineer's schedule

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Old Street & St Luke's. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Work in Old Street rarely sits on its own, so you may also want home renovation in Old Street, RSJ and steel beam installation across Islington, builders in Islington, the Party Wall Act when a beam bears on a shared wall, our London RSJ and steel beam installation page and Bowing Wall Repair.

Why Old Street Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

Old Street steelwork lives or dies on the paperwork as much as the propping. GS Renovation handles both: we appoint the engineer who produces the calculations, supply them for the freeholder's licence to alter, deal with the managing agent and book building control, all under one roof. Our founder's 30+ years on the tools means we know these conversions, prop them safely and leave you a certified opening, not a snagging list.

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.