Structural Works in Eastbourne | Steel Beams & Wall Removal

What structural work covers

Structural work is anything that changes or repairs the parts of a building carrying load: removing or altering load bearing walls, forming new openings, installing steel or timber beams, underpinning, repairing cracked and bulging masonry, replacing failed lintels, and strengthening floors and roofs.

It is the work you cannot take a chance on, and it is also the work most tightly controlled. It has to be designed by a structural engineer, built to those calculations, and inspected and signed off by building control. Doing it without that paperwork causes real problems at sale, because a buyer’s solicitor will ask for the completion certificate.

We carry out structural work across East Sussex for homeowners, landlords, agents and businesses, and we deal with the engineer, the calculations, building control and the inspections rather than leaving you to arrange them.

We will also tell you when we think a crack is not structural, which is more often than not.

When a building is telling you something

Not every crack is serious. Fine hairline cracking in plaster, and cracks that open and close with the seasons, are usually shrinkage or normal movement. What matters is the pattern, the width, and how it changes over time.

The signs worth acting on are cracks wider than a few millimetres, cracks running diagonally from the corners of windows and doors, cracking that steps through the brickwork joints, doors and windows going out of square, floors sloping noticeably, and any crack that is visibly getting wider.

Sagging or bouncing floors, a bulging wall, a lintel that has dropped above an opening, and cracking around a bay window are all common in the older housing here, and all are worth an inspection rather than filling.

Photograph anything you are worried about with a date and a ruler alongside it. Change over time is the most useful evidence there is.

How we handle it

We look at it and tell you honestly what we think, including when we think it is not structural, which is often. Where it does need an engineer, we arrange one rather than leaving you to find one.

The engineer designs the solution and provides calculations. We submit to building control, agree the inspection stages and build to the design, with temporary support and propping put in before anything is cut. That sequencing is what keeps the building safe while the work happens.

Beams are fitted with the correct bearings and padstones, fire protected where required, and inspected before they are covered up.

Then we make good the plastering, joinery and decoration so you are left with a finished room rather than a structural job and a list of trades to find.

Wall removal and openings

Taking out load bearing walls and forming openings for doors, bifolds and knock throughs, with steel or timber beams, correct bearings and padstones, and temporary propping throughout. Including into extensions.

Lintels

Replacing failed, rusted and missing lintels above windows and doors. Rusting steel lintels expand and lift the brickwork above them, which is a common cause of cracking in nineteen thirties housing here.

Crack repair and movement

Stitching, resin ties and rebuilding cracked or bulging masonry, with matched brickwork and repointing so the repair does not stand out afterwards.

Chimney breasts

Removing breasts and supporting what remains above with gallows brackets or a beam, and putting right earlier removals where nothing was left supporting the stack.

Floors and roofs

Strengthening joists, curing bouncing floors, replacing rotten structural timber and roof repairs via our carpenters and roofers.

Underpinning and wall ties

Underpinning where an engineer has identified subsidence and specified it, and corroded tie replacement through cavity wall tie replacement.

Reading a crack before you panic

Most cracks we are asked to look at are not structural. This is roughly how we assess them, and you can do the same first pass yourself.

How wide is it? Hairline cracks in plaster are usually shrinkage. Beyond about three millimetres is worth investigating.
Which way does it run? Diagonal cracks from window and door corners suggest movement. Straight vertical cracks at a junction between old and new are often just differential shrinkage.
Does it step through the brickwork? Cracking that follows the mortar joints in a staircase pattern is masonry movement rather than plaster shrinkage.
Is it tapered? A crack wider at one end than the other suggests something is rotating or settling.
Is it changing? The single most useful question. Photograph it with a date and a ruler and compare in a few months.
What is nearby? A large tree, a leaking drain, a removed chimney breast or a rusting lintel are the usual culprits around here.

Send us photos with something for scale and we will tell you honestly whether it needs an engineer. Ring us on 01323 671001 if you would rather talk it through.

Movement in older East Sussex buildings

Most of the cracking we are asked to look at in this area is old, historic movement that stopped long ago. Victorian and Edwardian houses were built on shallow foundations by modern standards and they settled early in their lives, which is why so many have sloping floors and slightly out of square openings and are perfectly sound.

Where movement is current, the usual causes here are clay shrinkage inland, made up ground near the coast, trees close to a foundation drawing moisture out of the soil, and leaking or broken drains washing material out from under a footing.

Chimney breast removals done without support are another regular finding, along with rusting steel lintels expanding and lifting the brickwork above them, which is common in nineteen thirties housing around Willingdon and Hampden Park. Both look alarming and both are straightforward to put right once diagnosed.

The point of an inspection is to work out which of those you have, because the answers are very different. A drain repair and a tree management plan is a different proposition from underpinning, and it is worth knowing which before anyone starts talking about the second.

Questions we get asked

Is the crack in my wall serious?

Most are not. Fine hairline cracks in plaster and cracks that open and close with the seasons are usually shrinkage or seasonal movement. Take it more seriously if a crack is wider than about three millimetres, runs diagonally from a window or door corner, steps through the brick joints, is wider at one end, or is visibly getting worse. Photograph it with a date and a ruler alongside so change can be measured, and get it looked at.

Do I need a structural engineer?

For anything that removes or alters load bearing structure, yes, and building control will require the calculations. We arrange the engineer as part of the job rather than sending you off to find one. For diagnosing cracking, an inspection first often shows an engineer is not needed at all, which we will tell you.

Can you take out a load bearing wall?

Yes. It needs a beam sized by an engineer, adequate bearings and padstones at each end to spread the load into the supporting structure, temporary propping while the work is done, and building control inspection before it is covered up. We handle the design, the approvals and the making good afterwards.

What does building control approval involve?

An application with the engineer’s calculations, then inspections at set stages, typically once the propping and the opening are formed and again once the beam is in and before it is boarded over. At the end you get a completion certificate. That certificate is what a buyer’s solicitor will ask for, so it matters well beyond the day of the work.

Does my house need underpinning?

Probably not. Underpinning is specified far less often than people fear, and only where an engineer has established ongoing subsidence and its cause. Frequently the cause is a leaking drain or a tree, and dealing with that plus repairing the cracking is the appropriate answer. Get a diagnosis before agreeing to underpinning.

My chimney breast was removed by a previous owner. Is that a problem?

It can be. If the breast was taken out in a lower room without supporting what remains above, the stack in the roof or upper floor may be carried on nothing more than the surrounding plaster and floor. It is a common finding and it is fixable, usually with gallows brackets or a beam designed by an engineer. It is worth having checked, particularly before selling.

There is a horizontal crack following the mortar joints. What is that?

Horizontal cracking that repeats at regular intervals up a wall, roughly every 450 millimetres, is the classic sign of corroded cavity wall ties expanding. It is very common in coastal properties built between the 1920s and 1980s and it is quite different from subsidence. See our cavity wall tie replacement page.

Will you make good afterwards, or just do the structure?

We make good. Plastering, joinery, flooring and decoration are all done by our own team, so you get a finished room rather than a beam and a list of other trades to arrange. It is itemised separately in the quote so you can see the structural cost and the finishing cost.

Where we work

We are based on Hyde Gardens in Eastbourne, so the town and the villages around it are home ground for us. We are out working here most days and we know the housing well, including the older seafront terraces, the Victorian and Edwardian houses in Upperton and Meads, and the newer estates and blocks of flats nearer the edge of town.

From Eastbourne we cover the whole of East Sussex. Along the coast that takes in Bexhill, Hastings, Seaford, Newhaven, Brighton, where salt air and driving rain are hard on any building. Inland we work regularly in Polegate, Hailsham, Pevensey, Willingdon, Lewes, Uckfield, Heathfield, Crowborough, Battle and the smaller villages between them, where period cottages and country properties often need a gentler approach and older materials matched carefully.

Being local matters for structural works. We can get to you quickly to take a look, we know the buildings and the ground conditions, and we are never far away if you need us again. If your village is not on the list there is a good chance we still reach you, so give us a call on 01323 671001 and we will tell you either way.

Backed by recognised standards

We are Gas Safe registered and members of the Federation of Master Builders, NAPIT and the FSB. Those memberships mean our gas, electrical and building work is measured against recognised standards, and that an outside body has looked at how we work rather than us simply saying we are good at it. For a family business our reputation matters more than anything, and we have built it one customer at a time.

Structural works