Wall Removal and Knock Throughs in Bletchley
The kitchen wall out, the steel in, and the ground floor of a Bletchley semi made into one room.
The most requested structural job in Bletchley is the knock through: the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, or between the dining room and the lounge, taken out to make one open plan space across the back of a thirties or fifties semi. It is a two to three day structural operation with an engineer’s design and a Building Control inspection, and it changes the house more than anything else you can do for the money.
We do a lot of these, in Bletchley and across Milton Keynes, and the photographs on this page are our own: the wall propped on acrows and strongboys, the steel installed under the joists on padstones, the opening framed and ready for plaster. Bletchley is a few minutes from our base, which makes the sequence of engineer, work and inspection easy to arrange.
What Bletchley walls are made of
The interwar semis have brick internal walls, usually solid, sometimes with a timber stud where you least expect it, and the floor above is on timber joists that either bear on the wall or run parallel to it. Which way the joists run decides how big the steel is and whether the ceiling can be flush. The fifties and sixties council built houses have blockwork walls and a more consistent structure. The Fenny Stratford terraces are Victorian, solid brick, and the party wall comes into any opening that bears on it.
Chimney breasts are the other regular: the one in the dining room out to give a straight wall for the kitchen, with the stack above supported on a steel or gallows brackets. Internal structural work on these houses needs no planning application but always needs Building Regulations approval, and Milton Keynes City Council or an approved inspector will inspect the steel before it is covered. Treat that as local background rather than advice on your house. We confirm the detail on the first visit.
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Structural alterations we have built
Our own photographs, some mid build, because that is where you can see how a job was put together. More on the projects page.
Typical works can include
Every project in Bletchley is different. Depending on the agreed scope, works may include:
- Structural engineer calculations, where required and where included within the agreed scope
- Temporary works, acrow props and strongboys
- Opening formed and masonry cut back
- Padstones or spreader plates bedded to specification
- Steel beam installed, levelled and packed
- Fire protection to the steel and boxing in
The full list, and how we run the job, is on the main structural alterations page.
I am very pleased with the result. They came on time. Very friendly and efficient with their work. They were tidy and cleaned up after themselves. The result of the job was great. Very pleased and intend to use them for future jobs.
Questions from Bletchley
How much disruption is a knock through in a Bletchley house?
Two to three noisy, dusty days for the structural work, with the rooms either side out of use and the rest of the house sealed off with dust screens. Then a quieter week or so for the fire protection, boxing in and plastering. Most people stay in the house. If the kitchen is being refitted at the same time, that is the part that takes the room out of action.
Do I need Building Regulations approval to remove a wall in Bletchley?
Yes, for any load bearing wall, and it is worth doing properly because a buyer’s solicitor will ask for the completion certificate when you come to sell. The engineer designs the beam, Building Control inspect it in place before it is boxed in, and the certificate is issued at the end. We manage that where it forms part of the agreed scope.
What is the difference between planning permission and Building Regulations?
Planning is about whether you are allowed to build the thing at all: size, appearance, effect on neighbours. Building Regulations are about whether it is safe and properly built: structure, insulation, fire, drainage, ventilation, electrics.
They are separate approvals. An extension can need no planning permission whatsoever and still require Building Control approval. For structural work we generally prefer the Full Plans route, so drawings and calculations are checked before we start rather than problems surfacing halfway through.
We work alongside Building Control and structural engineers regularly and can manage that liaison where it forms part of the agreed scope. Their fees and appointments are not automatically included unless the quotation says so.
How long will the work take?
It depends on the job, and anyone who gives you a number without seeing the house is guessing. As a rough guide: a bathroom is two to three weeks, a kitchen refit two to four, a single storey rear extension is usually ten to fourteen weeks from breaking ground, and a full house renovation runs three to six months depending on scale.
Weather, Building Control inspections and lead times on windows, doors and kitchens all move those numbers. We build realistic float into the programme rather than promising a date we cannot hold.
Other work we do in Bletchley
Structural alterations nearby
Also covering Fenny Stratford Simpson Woughton on the Green Stoke Hammond Newton Longville Bow Brickhill
Planning structural alterations in Bletchley?
Send a few photographs and tell us what you have in mind. We will come and look, and the written quotation costs nothing.