Structural Alterations Hammersmith and Fulham

GS Renovation carries out structural alterations throughout Hammersmith and Fulham, from new openings in Parsons Green terraces to replacement joists and underpinning near the River Thames. We form supported openings, renew failed timbers and strengthen foundations, all engineer-designed and signed off under the Building Regulations.

In Hammersmith and Fulham, a simple new opening starts from £1,500, and underpinning a single elevation typically costs £6,000 to £21,000 (indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Hammersmith and Fulham.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Hammersmith and Fulham address and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint designs the work, and it is registered with Hammersmith and Fulham Council building control or an approved inspector. On a shared wall you serve the party wall notice as building owner; we supply the drawings.
3. Props and any trial holes first, then the opening, joists or underpinning in the engineer's sequence.
4. Building control inspects each stage before it is covered, then issues the completion certificate.

Structural alterations for Hammersmith and Fulham period homes

Whether you are widening a doorway, forming a supported opening into a rear closet wing, or replacing joists lost to old damp, the borough's period stock needs a considered approach. Many Fulham and Shepherd's Bush terraces have soft lime mortar, undersized original timbers and settlement from a century of use, so we begin with a structural survey and engineer's calculations rather than guesswork.

For new openings the engineer sizes the steel beam or lintel to the span, and we set it on padstones, propping safely while it goes in. Replacement joists are matched for depth and spacing and tied into sound bearings. Where a bay or wall has dropped, underpinning in sequenced bays takes the foundation down to firmer ground. Each solution is drawn up by the engineer before we start.

Housing in Hammersmith and Fulham

Take the 95,080 or so homes the valuation list gives Hammersmith and Fulham: 77% flats, 23% houses, 56% from before 1919, 9% interwar and 34% post-war. Most homes here are flats, and structural repair to a block in Hammersmith and Fulham usually falls to the freeholder under the lease, so it is agreed with them before anything is opened up.

Underpinning and basements under Hammersmith and Fulham rules

Hammersmith and Fulham's building control fee schedule has no fixed line for underpinning. Works it does not list, basements and underpinning among them, are charged on the cost of the works, so the application needs a realistic contract value before building control can price it. The inspections then follow the stages the council sets out: foundation excavations before any concrete is poured, then covering of foundations and completed foundations. On underpinning every bay is an excavation, so a bay is not concreted until its dig has been seen, and the programme is set around those visits, with 1 day's notice for most of them.

Underpinning sometimes grows into a plan to lower the floor, and that is where the borough's rules change. Since 26 April 2018 a borough-wide Article 4 direction has taken away permitted development rights for basements. A new or enlarged basement needs full planning permission, flats and maisonettes included, and the application has to carry a Construction Method Statement. So deepening a cellar under a Hammersmith and Fulham terrace is a planning project first and a structural one second. We flag at the survey when the work you describe is heading across that line, and the council's planning team has the final word.

Engineer, party wall and sign-off in SW6

Because these houses share party walls, alterations near a boundary, underpinning next to a neighbour, or a beam bearing into the shared wall are notifiable under the Party Wall Act. You serve the correct notices as building owner in good time, with the drawings and programme we give you, which matters on the tightly spaced streets around Fulham Broadway and Bishops Park where every terrace adjoins its neighbours on both sides.

Structural alterations fall under the Building Regulations, so Hammersmith and Fulham Council's building control approves and inspects the works, not the planning department. Planning is a question only for external changes, which a conservation area controls more tightly; a listed home needs listed building consent for internal work too. We coordinate the engineer and the inspections so your W6 or SW6 project is signed off by building control from design to completion.

• Load-bearing wall removal and new structural openings
• Party wall process explained, and work built to the award
• Lintel replacement and repair over failed openings

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 25 statistical areas in Hammersmith and Fulham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If this is your first project in Hammersmith and Fulham, these are worth a look: home renovation in Hammersmith and Fulham, our Hammersmith and Fulham area guide, a main building contractor in London, underpinning in London, structural alterations anywhere in London and Chimney Breast Removal.

The GS Renovation Difference in Hammersmith and Fulham

GS Renovation is the sensible choice for structural alterations in Hammersmith and Fulham because you deal with one team from survey to sign-off. We manage the structural engineer and building control, build every beam and underpinning bay to the engineer's design, and keep a dust-sheeted, tidy site in your occupied home, all underpinned by our founder's 30+ years on the tools.

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.