GS Renovation carries out structural alterations across New Barnet, in the Victorian terraces near Victoria Recreation Ground and the interwar semis beyond them. New supported openings, replacement joists, new lintels over widened openings and repairs where an original timber lintel has rotted in the wall. Every alteration is designed by a structural engineer we appoint and inspected by Barnet Council building control.
What actually turns up inside an EN4 terrace
Victorian terraces in New Barnet hide a predictable set of problems, and the first day of opening up usually finds two or three of them. Timber lintels over internal openings that have shrunk away from the brickwork above. Lath and plaster on the first floor partitions, which will not hold a fixing and comes off in sheets. Suspended timber ground floors on honeycomb sleeper walls, with airbricks that a later patio has buried. None of that stops the work, but it changes the sequence and it changes the price if nobody looked first.
Joist ends are the other regular find. In an EN4 terrace the floor joists bear into pockets in the party walls, and where a gutter has been overflowing for years the ends nearest that wall are soft. Replacing them means either new joists to the engineer's size or new bearing on a wall plate bolted to the masonry. We cut back to sound timber, treat what stays, deal with the gutter that caused it, and never pack a rotten joist end up on a bit of slate to make the floor look level.
Engineer, notices and sign off with Barnet Council
Structural alteration inside your house is controlled under the Building Regulations rather than planning, so it is Barnet Council building control, or an approved inspector, that reviews the calculations and inspects the work. Planning only enters the picture for external change. The engineer produces the design; we build to it and we do not alter it on site. Where an alteration turns out to need more than the drawing anticipated, which happens once the plaster is off, the engineer comes back and reissues rather than us making a judgement call with a prop in the way.
In a terrace almost every structural alteration touches a party wall, and there are two of them. Cutting a beam pocket, taking a chimney breast off the shared stack or underpinning near the boundary is notifiable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and the notice is served by you, not by us. We are not party wall surveyors and never act as one. What we supply is the engineer's information your surveyor asks for, and a method and sequence we then actually work to on site.
- Basement and cellar alterations with retaining support
- Floor structure, joist and beam replacement
- Structural surveys and engineer coordination
- Lintel replacement and repair over failed openings
- Party Wall Act 1996 notices, awards and schedules of condition
The GS Renovation Difference in New Barnet
GS Renovation is a structural contractor first, which is why New Barnet owners call us for the awkward jobs rather than the pretty ones. We appoint the engineer, build strictly to the calculations, work to the party wall method agreed with two sets of neighbours and hold Barnet building control to their inspection stages. Founder led, fully insured, with 30+ years of hands-on experience behind the survey.
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Photographs kept at each stage for your records
- We build to the party wall award the surveyors agree, to the letter
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Building control inspected at foundation, steel and completion
- Paperwork and certificates handed over for when you sell