Structural alterations cover the work that changes how a building carries its own weight: beams, new openings, removed walls, altered roofs and the making good that follows. We coordinate the structural engineer, make the building control application and run the trades. We do not produce structural calculations, and we are not surveyors or architects. In Berkhamsted the consent side needs care, because of the conservation area and the way permitted development rights have been withdrawn here.
Berkhamsted conservation area was designated in 1969 and covers about half the town
Berkhamsted conservation area was designated on 24 March 1969. The Berkhamsted Conservation Area Character Appraisal records that it covers approximately 98 hectares and is the second largest conservation area in Dacorum borough. It states that the conservation area includes about half the total area of the town's built environment.
Dacorum Borough Council also records boundary amendments on 29 March 1994, 21 January 2014 and 21 April 2016. A property outside the line in 1969 may be inside it now. Checking the current boundary against your address is the first thing we do, because the answer changes what can be altered without a planning application.
Article 4 in Berkhamsted is written house number by house number
Dacorum Borough Council publishes the Berkhamsted Article 4 (2) schedule address by address on its conservation areas page. It names individual house numbers on Boxwell Road, Chapel Street, Charles Street, Clarence Road, Cowper Road, Hamilton Road, Kitsbury Road, Kitsbury Terrace, Ravens Lane, Shrublands Avenue, Shrublands Road and Station Road. Parts of the High Street are listed too, including Camilla Terrace and Sibdon Place, with confirmation dates running from 27 May 2004 to 27 October 2011.
Appendix 5 of the character appraisal lists what those directions withdraw. They cover enlargement, improvement or alteration, alteration to the front roof, erection of a front porch, hard surfacing within the curtilage, work to a gate, fence or wall, and exterior painting. Because the schedule runs by house number, two structurally identical terraced houses a few doors apart can sit under different permitted development rules. Chapel Street is covered at 1 and 2, 5 to 18, 22 and 23, but not at 3, 4, 19, 20 or 21.
Roof alterations inside the conservation area need planning permission
Dacorum Borough Council states that within a conservation area planning permission is required to make additions and alterations to the roof of a house, including dormers. If your alteration involves a new dormer, a raised ridge or a change to the roof structure, that is a planning application as well as a building regulations one.
Dacorum's design guidance for Berkhamsted states that because of the topography of the area and roofscape views, the size, form and materials of rear dormers can be sensitive. It names reasonable examples on the east side of Cross Oak Road next to Kewa Court. We sequence the work so the permission is in hand before the roof is opened up.
Checking the Article 4 position for one address
You check it with Dacorum Borough Council, not on the national map. The national planning data register publishes no Article 4 direction areas for Dacorum, so a Berkhamsted homeowner cannot check the position there. Dacorum publishes the information itself in two places: the address by address table of conservation area Article 4 (2) directions on its conservation areas page, and a separate Article 4 directions page for the employment area directions.
The council's conservation and design team can confirm an individual address at conservation@dacorum.gov.uk or 01442 228000. We make that check part of the quotation stage rather than a surprise halfway through the job.
- Party Wall Act 1996 notices, awards and schedules of condition
- New door and window openings in solid masonry
- Steel beam and RSJ installation
- Trial holes to confirm foundation depth and ground conditions
- Bressummer and bay window support to period frontages
The GS Renovation Difference in Berkhamsted
A structural alteration in Berkhamsted is as much a consent exercise as a building one. We check the conservation area boundary and the address by address Article 4 schedule before we price, so the quotation reflects the application that is actually needed rather than the one that is assumed. We appoint the structural engineer and build to the calculations issued, and we coordinate the building control application and inspections. We are a contractor, not a surveyor or an architect, and we say plainly where a specialist is needed. GS Renovation Ltd is registered in England, company number 14611254, and fully insured.
- Load paths carried properly down to foundations
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Underpinning carried out in sequenced bays, never one long trench
- We build to the party wall award the surveyors agree, to the letter