Structural alterations covers anything that changes how a building carries load: beams, piers, new openings, removals and rebuilds. Work of that kind needs a structural engineer's calculations and a building control application. We appoint and coordinate the engineer and build to what they issue, and we do not produce calculations ourselves. This page sets out who you deal with in Dunstable and what the routes are.
Central Bedfordshire Council decides planning and runs building control for Dunstable
Central Bedfordshire Council is a unitary authority and the local planning authority for Dunstable. Dunstable Town Council is not the planning authority, so a query put there will not move a structural application forward. The council also runs its own building control service, reachable on building.control@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk and 0300 300 8635.
One authority for both sides of the job is a practical advantage. Where an alteration needs planning consent as well as building regulations approval, the two applications go to the same body. We make the building control application, arrange the inspections, and keep the engineer's drawings and the work on site in step with each other.
Dunstable has one conservation area, and it covers about 28 hectares
That is Dunstable Conservation Area, reference CA43, one of 61 conservation areas across Central Bedfordshire. It measures about 900 metres north to south and about 820 metres east to west. Whether your property sits inside that boundary is the first thing to establish, because it changes what consent an alteration needs.
The town plan explains where the older fabric sits. Dunstable's street plan is a Roman crossroads, where Watling Street crosses the Icknield Way, giving High Street North, High Street South, West Street and Church Street. Watling Street through the town centre is now the A5183 and the A505, not the A5, which runs on the Dunstable Northern Bypass to the north.
Demolition and dangerous structures have their own notice periods and numbers
Central Bedfordshire Council requires at least six weeks' notice before demolition works. That is a long lead time, and it belongs in the programme at the start rather than at the point the machine is booked. Where an alteration involves taking a building, or part of one, down, we give the notice and work to the date.
Anything unsafe has a separate route. The council publishes a dangerous structures number, 0300 300 8635 during office hours and 0300 300 8098 outside office hours. If you have a wall that has moved, a bulging bay, or a propped opening that was never signed off, those numbers exist for that. We can survey it and bring the engineer in.
The northern edge of Dunstable sits on the Zig Zag Chalk Formation
British Geological Survey 1:50,000 mapping gives Zig Zag Chalk around Brewers Hill Road, and on into Houghton Regis beyond it. That formation belongs to the Grey Chalk Subgroup. The BGS describes it as mostly firm, pale grey to off white blocky chalk, with a lower part of rhythmic alternations of marls and marly chalks.
Marls and marly chalks are softer than the chalk around them. Where a new pier, pad or underpin is going in, the engineer wants to know which band is actually under the bearing. We dig the trial hole, record what it shows and hand it over, rather than working from the published map alone.
- Floor structure, joist and beam replacement
- Steel beam and RSJ installation
- Reinstatement, plastering and finishing after structural works
- Bressummer and bay window support to period frontages
- Wall plate, joist hanger and restraint strap installation
Why Choose GS Renovation in Dunstable
Structural work fails on coordination as readily as on engineering. We appoint the structural engineer, obtain the calculations, submit to Central Bedfordshire Council's building control service, and sequence the propping, the steel and the making good around the inspection dates. You deal with one person throughout, rather than with an engineer, a builder and a surveyor who each point at the others. The calculations are always the engineer's, because we are a contractor and not an engineering practice. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder.
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- Building control inspected at foundation, steel and completion
- Every alteration certified rather than quietly built over
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
- Underpinning carried out in sequenced bays, never one long trench