Structural alteration covers anything that changes how a building carries its own weight: new openings, removed walls, altered floors, underpinning and beams. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations issued, and coordinate the building control side. We never produce structural calculations, and we are not surveyors or architects. This page sets out the two separate consent routes that apply in Maidenhead and what each asks for.
Planning in Maidenhead now turns on which character area you are in
Appendix 1 of the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan is a design code that divides the town into 14 named character areas. They are Historic core, Town centre, Town periphery, Boyn Hill, St Mark's and All Saints, Furze Platt, Leafy suburbs, Altwood, Settlement fringe, Pinkneys, Ray Mill, Oaken Grove, Desborough and Braywick, and Recent developments. Each carries its own guidance.
In a conservation area, Policy BH-1 asks alterations, extensions and new buildings to respect the scale, height, massing, footprint, layout, building lines, architectural styles, building detailing, form, bulk, style, materials palette and roofline of that area. Structural work that stays inside is a building regulations matter. Anything that shows externally picks up the planning side as well.
A building can be protected here without being listed
The Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan carries a local list of 40 non designated heritage assets compiled in 2025, referenced M1/25 to M40/25. Policy BH-4 asks alterations and extensions to them to respect the scale, height, footprint, massing, layout, building lines, architectural styles, building detailing, form, bulk, style, materials palette and roofline of the asset. Checking that list belongs at the start of a scheme.
The council publishes conservation area appraisal statements for four of Maidenhead's conservation areas: Altwood Road, Maidenhead Riverside, Maidenhead Town Centre and Pinkneys Green. All Saints Boyn Hill, Castle Hill and Furze Platt Triangle have a boundary map published but no appraisal. Where there is no appraisal, there is less published detail to design against, and we flag that to you early.
What sits under a new bearing is not the same across the town
British Geological Survey 1:50k mapping shows no superficial cover at Rutland Road, Boyn Hill Avenue, Altwood Road, Castle Hill, Desborough Park, Cox Green Lane, Maidenhead station and Pinkneys Green. Bedrock lies directly beneath the topsoil at those addresses. A beam concentrates load onto two small bearing points, and those points have to carry down to something able to take them.
The same mapping records artificial ground on the north side of the town. Worked Ground, mapped as void, is shown at the Summerleaze Road gravel workings, and Infilled Ground around North Town Moor. Made ground of that kind needs checking before any foundation or underpinning design. We open up, record what is there, and pass it to the engineer we have appointed.
Not every building control charge for structural work is published
The council does not publish a fixed building control charge for underpinning. Category C1 underpinning is individually determined for full plans, for a building notice and for regularisation. Where your job involves underpinning, the charge is agreed with the council rather than read off a table, and we ask for it before the quotation is fixed.
Other categories are published. From 1 April 2026 a loft conversion that includes a dormer or changes to the roof line, up to 60 square metres, carries a £432.00 plan charge plus a £660.00 inspection charge on full plans, or £1,255.80 as a building notice, inclusive of VAT. The council charge is shown separately from our price.
- Drainage diversion and build-over agreements where required
- Structural surveys and engineer coordination
- Load-bearing wall removal and new structural openings
- Trial holes to confirm foundation depth and ground conditions
- Steel goalpost and portal frames to the engineer's design
Trusted Structural Alterations in Maidenhead
Structural alteration splits into two approvals that are not interchangeable. Building regulations cover the structure itself. Planning covers what changes outside, which in Maidenhead means the character area guidance in the design code and, in a conservation area, Policy BH-1. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations issued, and coordinate the building control application and the inspections that follow. We do not produce calculations, and we do not act as surveyors or architects. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and quotations are free and without obligation.
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- We build to the party wall award the surveyors agree, to the letter
- Temporary works and needling planned before demolition starts
- Waste cleared as we go, not left piled in the garden