Structural engineering in Richmond upon Thames

A borough of conservation areas

Richmond has 85 conservation areas and 819 listed buildings, and its heritage at risk register holds 17 entries. The borough also contains 1 world heritage site, at Kew. Conservation status does not change the engineering, but it changes what you can see afterwards, and a structural change that alters a roof line or a rear elevation can bring the application back to the conservation officer.

So we design to keep visible change small. New steel is hidden in floor depths where possible, loft beams are kept inside the existing roof profile, and rear openings are sized to the proportion of the elevation. Our loft conversion drawings in Richmond upon Thames show how the roof is dealt with in planning, since permitted development for lofts has its own limits: Class B loft enlargement: resulting roof space must not exceed the original by more than 40 m3 (terrace house) or 50 m3 (any other case); no part may exceed the height of the highest part of the existing roof or extend beyond the principal roof plane fronting a highway; original eaves maintained or reinstated and the enlargement, so far as practicable, at least 0.2 m from the eaves along the slope; no part beyond the outside face of any external wall of the original dwellinghouse (except hip-to-gable or joining to a rear or side extension).

Houses built over many decades often combine solid and cavity walls. A Victorian villa in Twickenham or Barnes may have been extended in the interwar years and again in more recent decades, and each addition has its own footing. We trace them before designing anything new.

Houses, owners and the shape of local demand

About 59.8 per cent of households live in a house or bungalow, and 62.4 per cent own their home. Briefs here are often ambitious: a full-width rear extension, a basement for a cinema or gym, a loft with a bathroom, and a reconfiguration of the ground floor that removes the original dividing walls.

Richmond decided 1,302 householder applications in its latest year, granted 83.3 per cent and decided 98.3 per cent in time. Planning is fast, so a prepared structural package is rarely held up behind the council. Our house extension drawings in Richmond upon Thames describe the extension routes in more detail.

Choosing the engineer, and party walls

Anyone may call themselves an engineer. On titles, the Engineering Council notes that 'Structural engineer' and 'engineer' are not legally protected or defined titles; the Engineering Council titles Chartered Engineer (CEng), Incorporated Engineer (IEng), Engineering Technician (EngTech) and ICT Technician (ICTTech) are protected under its Royal Charter and Byelaws. A basement certificate in Richmond must come from a suitably qualified engineer, so ask for the chartered title and the registration number before signing a fee proposal.

Semi-detached and terraced houses share walls, and a new boundary wall built on the line of junction needs 1 month's notice. Where a floor span rests on a shared wall, the simplified rules limit it to 6 metres. Our building regulations drawings in Richmond upon Thames carry these checks into the submission.

Quote and next step

Send the address, photographs and any plans you hold. We check designations, trees, water and neighbours, then give a fixed quote. For a single beam, see structural calculations in Richmond upon Thames, and for the wider borough read architectural drawings in Richmond upon Thames.