Structural Alterations in Gateshead

In most domestic situations exposed steel needs protection to achieve the required fire resistance, normally through boarding or plaster encasement, and building control will check it.

Gateshead comes under Gateshead Council for both planning and building control. That is where a building regulations application is made and where the inspector who signs the work off comes from. Structural calculations from an engineer and building control sign off, without exception is what they will be looking for.

We work alongside engineers regularly and can put you in touch. The calculations are theirs, and we build to exactly what they specify rather than substituting a different beam.

All of them. Around Saltwell Park and Bensham the stock is mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraces around Bensham, Saltwell and Deckham, and further out Gateshead has later estates through Chowdene, Wrekenton and Beacon Lough. The right approach depends far more on the age and construction of the individual property than on the town.

Usually yes, though the day the wall actually comes out is disruptive and noisy. We tell you which day that will be so you can plan around it.

Possibly, depending on exactly where the property sits. Saltwell and parts of Low Fell fall within designated conservation areas, and if that applies to your property Gateshead Council will look closely at brick, mortar colour and window detail on anything facing the street. If your property is affected, the design is shaped around that from the start rather than revised afterwards.

Wall thickness, what sits directly above it, the direction the floor joists run and the age and type of construction all give an indication. We check on site, and where there is any doubt the structural engineer confirms it before anything is cut.

Yes. Alongside Gateshead we regularly carry out structural alterations in Whickham, Felling, Birtley and across the wider North East, working from our base in Blaydon-on-Tyne.

A single opening with one beam is often a few days on site. Larger openings, two beams or a goalpost frame take longer, and the making good and plastering afterwards add to that.

They can. Gateshead sits squarely in the old Durham coalfield and a good proportion of the borough falls inside a Coal Authority Development High Risk Area, which matters as soon as you are digging footings rather than working above ground. We raise it at the quote stage rather than after the digger arrives, so you know whether an investigation or an assessment is likely to be needed.