Load
Structural Work
Steel beams, removing walls, underpinning and structural repair.
Structural Work in London
The part of a project where being nearly right is the same as being wrong.
Opening up the ground floor of a London house, supporting a new loft, or stabilising a building that has moved are all jobs where the margin for interpretation is zero. They are carried out to a structural engineer's calculations, inspected by building control, and executed in a sequence where temporary support matters as much as the permanent beam.
We carry out structural work across Greater London — load-bearing wall removal, steel installation, underpinning, basement retention works, crack stitching and structural repair. We work to your engineer's design or introduce you to one, and we will tell you honestly when a crack in your wall does not warrant either.
What you get
How we approach it
Temporary works taken seriously
Needles, acrow props and strongboys set out to a plan before anything is removed. Most structural failures on site happen during the temporary stage, not the permanent one.
Padstones and bearings
Bearing lengths and padstone sizes exactly as specified. A beam sitting on crushed brickwork is a beam that will move.
Fire protection to steel
Encasement or intumescent protection to the period required, evidenced for building control. Routinely skipped and routinely picked up at sign-off.
Movement monitored
Where a property has a history of movement, tell-tales and monitoring before committing to expensive remedial work that may not be needed.
Before you start
Before structural work starts
The items below are where projects most often stall. We raise them at survey stage, not halfway through.
Engineer first
No structural element is installed without calculations. If a builder offers to remove a wall without an engineer's drawing, that is the end of the conversation.
Building control
Structural alterations require a building notice or full plans application and staged inspections. The completion certificate is what a future buyer's solicitor requires.
Party wall
Cutting into a shared wall, or excavating near a neighbour's foundation, triggers the Party Wall Act. Notice periods are one or two months and cannot be shortened unilaterally.
Insurance and history
If a property has had a subsidence claim, your insurer has an interest in what happens next. Tell us early — it affects how the work is documented.
Options
Structural services
All work to an engineer's specification and building control approval.
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01Load-bearing wall removal
Most commonOpening kitchens into dining rooms and forming open-plan ground floors, with steel beams or goal-post frames designed for the actual loads above.
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02Steel beam installation
RSJs, UBs, flitch beams and goal-post frames craned or carried in, seated on engineered padstones and bolted to the design.
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03Underpinning
SpecialistTraditional mass concrete underpinning in engineered sequence, to stabilise a property that has suffered foundation movement or to increase depth for a basement.
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04Basement and cellar works
Adds spaceLowering floor levels, retention and waterproofing to BS 8102, with tanking, cavity drainage and a sump and pump arrangement designed as a system.
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05Crack stitching and repair
RepairHelical bar reinforcement, lintel replacement, bulged wall restraint and repair of failed historic alterations.
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06Chimney breast removal
Check yoursRemoval with proper gallows bracket or beam support to the stack above, which is the single most commonly botched structural job in London housing.
Where we work
Structural Work across London
We deliver this service across all 33 London boroughs. Pick your area for local planning context, typical property types and recent work nearby.
Coverage mapFAQs
Structural Work — your questions answered
The questions we are asked most often about this service. If yours is not here, call us — we would rather answer it now than after you have committed.
Direction of the floor joists above, thickness of the wall, whether it continues through to the floor below and whether anything is built off it. It is checked on site and confirmed by an engineer, never assumed from the ground floor alone.
The beam installation itself is typically three to five days including temporary support and making good. The programme around it — engineer, building control, party wall where relevant — is usually four to eight weeks in front of that.
Most are not. Width, shape, whether it passes through the mortar or the brick, and whether it is still moving are what matter. We will look, tell you what we see, and recommend an engineer only where it is warranted.
It is worth checking, because it is very often not. The stack above has to be supported, and a breast removed on the ground and first floor with the stack left sitting on nothing is something we find regularly during renovations.
Free quotation
Thinking about structural work?
Let us take a look.
Tell us what you are planning and we will arrange a free site survey and a written, itemised quotation — with no obligation and no sales visit.