Structural calculations in Havering

Regularisation: calculations after the event

If steel went in without approval, Havering's guidance on regularisation asks you to provide as much information as you can: plans, calculations, invoices and photographs. It adds that structural work may need exposing so that compliance can be proved.

We can do this work. We survey what is there, measure the members that can be seen, open up where the officer will insist and calculate the beam backwards from its size to check it was adequate. The result is a calculation that supports the regularisation application. It is slower than doing the job properly first time, so if you are still at the planning stage, get the calculation done before the builder starts.

Basements and the structural survey

Havering's householder checklist is firm on basements. It asks for a structural survey for All basements; chartered engineer, assessing stability including that of the neighbours, prepared and self-certified by a suitably qualified chartered engineer who belongs to the relevant professional body. It also asks for a Basement Impact Assessment for Any new or extended basement.

In practice this means that a house with a basement planned is a two-stage job. The engineer's survey and impact assessment come first and decide whether the basement is feasible. The structural calculations for the rest of the house follow, once the layout is fixed. Doing them in that order avoids paying for beams in a scheme that is later redrawn.

That survey sits with a chartered engineer, and a beam calculation cannot stand in for it. We can prepare the architectural and structural layout the engineer works from, and we will say at the first call whether the rest of your project needs specialists.

Suburban houses, Green Belt and heritage

Whether the work is new or already built, the evidence an examiner trusts is the same: measured sizes, a stated span, a stated load and a named bearing. We keep photographs from the survey and attach the relevant ones to the schedule, so that the officer sees what we saw.

Havering is a borough of houses: 76.7 per cent of households live in a house or bungalow, and 69.5 per cent own their home. Rear extensions, side extensions and loft rooms each need a beam, a new floor or a foundation.

Green Belt covers 53 per cent of the council area. That limits how far a house can grow in some places, so the structural design follows the planning outcome. Householder schemes follow the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD, and listed or conservation-area buildings follow the Heritage SPD.

The borough has 11 conservation areas and 146 listed entries. Havering also decided 97.8 per cent of householder applications in time, which helps when structural work is waiting on a consent.

Havering fee and what arrives

Structural calculations start at £295 including VAT, fixed after the constraints check. You receive the calculations, a beam and padstone schedule and a layout drawing, normally about a week after the survey. A second technologist checks the set, and we revise at no charge if the examiner asks.

The figures carry into our building regulations drawings in Havering, and into the planning drawings in Havering when permission is needed.

More for Havering

See architectural drawings in Havering for the wider picture, and the structural calculations page for how the service works. For a different approach to fees, compare Bromley.