If you are planning to knock through a wall to open up a kitchen or living room, the short answer is yes: if the wall is load bearing, you need a structural engineer. It is not a box-ticking exercise. The engineer works out what the wall is holding up, designs the beam that replaces it, and produces the calculations that Building Control will ask to see before they sign the work off.
Most terraced and semi-detached houses across East Ham, Manor Park, Barking and Ilford follow a similar pattern. The party walls and the spine wall running front to back through the middle of the house are almost always load bearing, because the first floor joists and often the roof purlins sit on them. Walls that sit directly under a wall above, or run at right angles to the floor joists, are also strong candidates.
Stud partitions made of timber and plasterboard are usually non-structural, but not always. In older houses a timber stud wall can be carrying floor joists that have been notched into it, and in 1930s houses the wall between the kitchen and rear reception often supports the bathroom above. Tapping a wall and listening for a hollow sound tells you what it is made of, not what it is doing.
The engineer visits the property, lifts a floorboard or two if needed, and confirms which loads come down onto the wall: floors, roof, any walls above, and sometimes a chimney breast. They then design a steel beam, usually a universal beam or a pair of channels bolted together, sized to carry those loads with the right amount of deflection so your ceiling does not crack.
Just as important is what happens at each end of the beam. The engineer checks whether the existing brickwork can take the concentrated load and specifies padstones, typically concrete or engineering brick, to spread it. Where the wall being removed is long, or where you want to remove a chimney breast at the same time, they may also need to design a post and check the foundation underneath it.
You will receive a set of calculations and a drawing showing the beam size, bearing lengths, padstone details and any temporary propping requirements. A competent builder can price from this, and Building Control will use it to approve the work.
Removing a load bearing wall is controlled work under the Building Regulations regardless of whether planning permission is needed, and for an internal wall it usually is not. You or your builder must submit either a Building Notice or a Full Plans application to Newham Building Control or an approved inspector before work starts. A Building Notice is quicker and typically costs in the region of £250 to £450 for a single beam, but the inspector will still want to see the engineer's calculations on site.
The inspector will visit at least once, normally when the beam is in and before it is plastered over, to check the bearings, padstones and any fire protection to the steel. Once satisfied they issue a completion certificate. Without that certificate you will struggle to sell the house, because a buyer's solicitor will ask for it and an indemnity policy is not always accepted.
If the wall you are removing is a party wall, or the beam bears onto one, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 also applies and you must serve notice on your neighbour. This catches a lot of people out in the terraced streets around East Ham and Plaistow.
For a straightforward single beam in a typical London terrace, structural engineering fees generally fall between £350 and £800 including a site visit, calculations and a drawing. A double knock-through with a post and foundation check, or a wall plus chimney breast removal, tends to sit between £700 and £1,400. Fees depend on how many elements need designing, whether the loads are simple to trace, and whether the engineer needs to open up finishes to see what is there.
The engineer's part usually takes one to two weeks from site visit to issuing the calculations. The building work itself is typically two to five days for a single beam, allowing for propping, cutting out, lifting the steel, packing and pointing up. Steel for a domestic opening is often £300 to £900 depending on span and section size, and the builder's labour will be on top.
Some builders will offer to remove a wall on the basis of experience, sizing the beam by eye or from a table. Occasionally that works. When it does not, the results range from cracked plaster and sagging floors to, in the worst cases, partial collapse during the work. A beam that is a size too small will often look fine on the day and start showing problems over the following months.
There is also the paperwork problem. Without calculations, Building Control cannot sign the work off, and without a completion certificate you carry the issue forward to the day you sell or remortgage. Retrospective regularisation is possible but usually means exposing the beam again and paying for an engineer to assess it, which costs more than doing it properly the first time.
A short site visit and a set of calculations is a small part of the overall cost of a knock-through. It is the part that lets everyone else, from your builder to the inspector to a future buyer, trust the work.
Building Control will ask for calculations from a suitably qualified engineer, so in practice no. A builder can tell you whether a wall is likely to be structural, but the beam design and bearing checks need to come from an engineer.
Usually not, because internal alterations are not development. You do need Building Regulations approval, and if the house is listed or in a flat with a lease, there may be additional consents to obtain.
For a domestic knock-through, most local practices can arrange a site visit within a week and issue calculations within one to two weeks after that. Give more notice if you also need a party wall surveyor involved.