GS Renovation installs steel beams and RSJs across Putney, from the bay-fronted Victorian terraces off the Upper Richmond Road to the Edwardian homes and riverside properties near the Thames. With more than 30 years of structural experience in SW15, we open up load-bearing walls safely and see every beam through to building control sign-off.
Removing load-bearing walls in Putney terraces
The typical Putney terrace has a load-bearing wall between the two reception rooms and another between the kitchen and the rear closet wing. Taking either out to create a single open space needs a steel beam, sized by a structural engineer, bearing onto padstones at each end. Before we cut anything, we install temporary propping to carry the floor and the wall above, then demolish in careful, staged sections rather than all at once.
Because these SW15 houses share party walls and chimney stacks with the neighbours, the beam often bears into masonry that is jointly owned. That brings the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 into play, so you serve the correct notices on adjoining owners in good time. Every RSJ we fit is inspected and signed off by building control under the building regulations, giving you a clean paper trail for the future.
Engineered steelwork for Putney homes
No two Putney houses carry load in quite the same way. A double-storey terrace with rooms above, a loft conversion overhead or a wide side-return infill all change the size of steel required, so we never guess. We work from a structural engineer's calculations and specify the beam, the bearing length and the padstones accordingly, whether that is a single RSJ or a goalpost frame with columns.
Solid Victorian brickwork behaves differently from later cavity walls, and the closet wings on these terraces often sit on shallow foundations. We check the bearings, pad out where the masonry is weak and make sure the new steel is properly bedded and fire-protected. Once the beam is in and the props come out, we make good the openings, plaster the reveals and leave the room ready for the next stage of your project.
Traps in a converted Putney house
Many Putney terraces were divided into flats or converted at some point, and that history is where steel jobs go wrong. Walls get built off floor joists rather than off structure below, so a partition that looks non-structural on a plan turns out to be carrying a bathroom above it. Openings have been formed before without approval. And fire separation between flats has frequently been compromised by whoever did that earlier work. We ask for any drawings or paperwork from previous work at survey, since they often explain what we then find behind the plaster.
The other issue near the river is what lies underneath. Ground conditions vary along the Thames edge of SW15, and some of these houses have shallow footings on made ground. A beam concentrates load onto two points where a wall never did, so the engineer needs to know what is below before judging whether the existing foundation is adequate or a bearing needs spreading. We open up and find out rather than assume.
- Load-bearing wall removal and knock-throughs
- Structural openings for open-plan living
- Concrete and high-density padstones at every bearing
- Beam boxing, fire protection and plasterboard encasement
- Flitch beams where a slimmer steel and timber solution suits
Trusted RSJ and Steel Beam Installation in Putney
Putney homeowners choose GS Renovation because we treat steel beam work as engineering, not guesswork. One team handles the propping, the safe demolition, the beam and the making good, working to the engineer's calculations and to building control. With 30+ years in SW15 party wall terraces, we keep the job safe, tidy and fully documented from start to sign-off.
- A dedicated project manager from first survey to handover
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Steel ordered cut, drilled and primed to the schedule
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- Itemised pricing, so you can see what every stage costs
- Making good and plastering priced in, not treated as an extra