An RSJ is the steel beam that carries the load when a wall comes out. Our part is the survey, the propping, the beam and its padstones, the making good and the inspections. 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 Royston property involves, and who signs it off.
Building control for a Royston beam goes to Hertfordshire Building Control, not to the council
Building control for Royston is provided by Hertfordshire Building Control Limited, a company North Herts Council owns jointly with seven other Hertfordshire local authorities. The council does not run the service in house. The notice for your beam is therefore submitted to that company rather than to a council department.
Hertfordshire Building Control Limited is company number 09990656, incorporated on 5 February 2016 and registered at Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council offices, The Campus, Welwyn Garden City AL8 6AE. We make the application and book the inspections around our own programme. The propping, the bearings and the finished beam are each seen at the right stage rather than after the fact.
A beam lands on two small points, and in central Royston those points sit over chalk
British Geological Survey 1:50,000 mapping, sheet 204 Biggleswade, gives the bedrock beneath Royston town centre as the Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation. The same survey records no superficial deposit across the centre of the town, so chalk lies immediately beneath the topsoil rather than beneath clay or gravel.
That matters where a padstone, a new pier or a strengthened footing has to carry down. A steel beam concentrates everything above it onto two bearing points, and what those points bear on is a question to settle before the steel is ordered. We open up at the bearing positions, record what is actually there, and pass it to the engineer we have appointed.
What you find when the wall is opened depends on the age of the building
Red and orange bricks made from local clays were fashionable in Royston in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and the council's conservation area assessment records the brick bond as predominantly Flemish with relatively thin joints. Flemish bond puts headers running back into the wall, which changes how a wall is needled and cut.
The same assessment records that timber framed buildings survive in Royston but have been rendered or given a classical brick re-fronting, so the frame is not visible from the street. A rendered elevation is not proof of a masonry wall behind it. We establish the construction by opening up before the propping is designed, not once the props are already in.
- RSJ and structural steel beam installation
- Lintel and catnic support to smaller openings
- Flitch beams where a slimmer steel and timber solution suits
- Party Wall Act 1996 notices and awards handled
- Structural engineer's calculations arranged and followed
The GS Renovation Difference in Royston
We are a contractor, not an engineering practice. For a Royston beam we appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations they issue, and hold the propping 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 sequence. You get one point of contact for the engineer, the steel, the brickwork and the sign off. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and quotations are free and without obligation.
- Party Wall Act notices served where a beam bears into a shared wall
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
- Steel ordered cut, drilled and primed to the schedule
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
- Making good and plastering priced in, not treated as an extra
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre