Structural Alterations in Olney
Openings in stone walls that have stood for three centuries, made without the building noticing.
Structural work in Olney is mostly in stone. The limestone rubble walls of the High Street houses and the cottages around them are thick, heavy and irregular, and cutting an opening through one is a different discipline to knocking a blockwork wall out on a modern estate. The wall is propped through, the opening is cut carefully, a steel or an oak lintel goes in, and the stone is rebuilt around it in lime so the finished opening reads as though it was always there.
That is not theory for us. Our project photographs include exactly this job in a stone cottage: the failed doorway propped and stripped back, a new oak lintel levelled in, and the finished opening with a solid oak door. It is the best illustration we have of how carefully we treat old stone, and it is the way we approach every structural alteration in Olney.
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Stone, lime and listed building consent
Rubble stone has no regular courses to bear on, so the padstones and the bearings for a new beam are built up in engineering brick or concrete and bedded into the wall properly. Steel is often the right answer for a wide opening; oak is often the right answer for a doorway or a window in a cottage, because it moves with the wall and looks right. The engineer decides on the load, and we advise on what will suit the building. The pointing on the rebuilt stone is lime, always, because cement will crack and hold water against the stone.
A good many Olney houses are listed, and on a listed building an internal structural opening needs listed building consent, separate from planning permission, before any work starts. Unlisted houses in the conservation area need only Building Regulations approval for internal work. We will say plainly which we think applies and when the conservation team at Milton Keynes City Council or a conservation architect should be involved. That is the general local picture; we confirm the position for your address before anything is designed.
Typical works can include
Every project in Olney 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
- Chimney breast removal with correct support above
The full list, and how we run the job, is on the main structural alterations page.
Questions from Olney
Can you form a new opening in a limestone wall in Olney?
Yes. The wall is propped through both sides with needles, the opening is cut by hand rather than with a saw that would shatter the stone, the beam or lintel goes in on proper bearings, and the reveals are rebuilt in matched stone and lime. It is slower than the same job in blockwork and it is worth the care; our stone cottage doorway project shows the result.
Does a knock through in a listed Olney house need consent?
Almost always, yes. Listed building consent covers internal alterations as well as external ones, and removing or opening a wall is exactly the kind of change it exists for. It is a separate consent from planning permission and it takes time, so it is worth starting early. On an unlisted house the internal work needs Building Regulations approval only.
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.
Good honest and knowledgeable work. They gave a fair quote and carried out repairs to my house wall that had some subsidence cracking. The mortar and replaced bricks were all matched well. I would use them again for any other house job.
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.
Other work we do in Olney
Structural alterations nearby
Also covering Emberton Lavendon Sherington Weston Underwood Clifton Reynes Ravenstone
Planning structural alterations in Olney?
Send a few photographs and tell us what you have in mind. We will come and look, and the written quotation costs nothing.