Structural alteration covers the work that changes how a building carries its load: new openings, beams, removed walls, altered floors and new foundations. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations issued and coordinate building control. We do not produce calculations, and we are not surveyors or architects. In Bishop's Stortford the planning position needs settling first, and this page explains why.
Bishop's Stortford is the one conservation area in East Herts with a confirmed householder Article 4 direction
East Herts has 42 conservation areas, and its conservation areas page lists confirmed Article 4 directions for the Bishop's Stortford Conservation Area alone. The council made two directions on 14 June 2017 and confirmed both as permanent on 15 November 2017.
The council's own leaflet warns that carrying out work controlled by either direction, without first obtaining planning permission, can be a criminal offence. That is the reason the consent position is settled before the programme is written, rather than during it.
The two directions are not the same, and one of them has no visibility test
The householder direction withdraws Schedule 2 Part 1 Class C, any other alteration to the roof of a dwellinghouse, on elevations or areas facing or visible from a highway, open space or waterway. A roof alteration that shows from the road therefore sits inside the planning system here.
The second direction, covering all properties, applies to the whole of the Bishop's Stortford Conservation Area and carries no visibility qualification at all. Which of the two catches your job decides whether a visibility argument is available to you. We set that out before any steel is priced.
Demolition inside the conservation area is controlled by volume, and by a list
Conservation area designation means planning permission is needed for the total or substantial demolition of an unlisted building of 115 cubic metres or greater. That reaches outbuildings and rear additions which people assume can simply come down.
The conservation area appraisal identified 188 unlisted buildings or groups of buildings as making an important architectural or historic contribution, and states that any proposal involving their demolition is unlikely to be approved. Where a scheme depends on taking something down, that is the first thing to check, not the last.
New foundations and underpinning meet different ground across the town
British Geological Survey 1:50,000 mapping puts the bedrock beneath Market Square and the town centre in the Thanet Formation and Lambeth Group, undifferentiated. The Lewes Nodular Chalk Formation and Seaford Chalk Formation, undifferentiated, is mapped immediately to the east of the square, on the Stort valley side.
In the valley towards Grange Paddocks the same mapping shows Alluvium and River Terrace Deposits 1 over Chalk. The survey describes Alluvium as normally soft to firm consolidated, compressible silty clay, which can contain layers of silt, sand, peat and basal gravel. Where a scheme needs a new foundation, the engineer designs it from a trial hole at the actual position, and we dig and record that hole first.
- Steel beam and RSJ installation
- Crack repair, helical bar stitching and masonry restraint
- Basement and cellar alterations with retaining support
- Floor structure, joist and beam replacement
- Lintel replacement and repair over failed openings
Why Bishop's Stortford Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
Structural work here runs on two separate consent tracks, and they move at different speeds. Where an Article 4 direction or a conservation area control applies, the planning position is settled first, because the council warns that controlled work carried out without permission can be a criminal offence. Building control then follows the construction, and we make that application and book the inspections. We appoint the structural engineer and build to their calculations. We never produce calculations, and we are not surveyors or architects. What you get is one point of contact holding those threads together, a fully insured contractor registered in England under company number 14611254, and a free quotation with no obligation.
- Work sequenced around the surveyors' schedule of condition before excavation
- Itemised pricing, so you can see what every stage costs
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Temporary works and needling planned before demolition starts
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts