Better layoutsin the homeyou already own

The most requested job is a single knock-through between two reception rooms or kitchen and dining room, either as a wide opening with a downstand beam or a full-width flush opening where the steel sits within the floor zone. Structural openings into a rear extension are similar work at a larger span. Chimney breast removal needs the stack above supported on gallows brackets or a beam. Widening a doorway, forming a new opening into a hallway or squaring off an awkward alcove are smaller versions of the same discipline.

Non-structural work covers new stud partitions to split a room, removing partitions that carry no load, and reconfiguring cupboards and hallways. Even here, checks matter: many walls that look non-structural carry floor joists above.

The sequence is fixed for good reason: check what the wall carries, design the beam and its bearings, install temporary propping (Acrows and strongboys where appropriate), form the opening, build the padstones or spread bearings, lift the steel, pack and pin it, then remove the props only once loads are transferred. Steel is normally a UB or PFC section, fire-protected where required by plasterboard encasement, with the bearing checked against the masonry below.

Making good is part of the job, not an extra: reveals squared, beam boxed or exposed by choice, plaster to a flat finish, floor levels resolved between rooms, skirting and architrave matched to the existing profile, and electrical points relocated by accredited electricians where the wall carried sockets or switches.

Internal alterations rarely need planning permission, but they almost always need building regulations approval where structure, drainage, ventilation or electrics are affected. Listed buildings are the exception, internal work there usually needs listed building consent. Flats also bring lease and freeholder consents into play. We confirm what applies before work is priced.

Sometimes the honest answer is that reconfiguring will not give you enough. If that is the case we will say so and set out what a rear extension or loft conversion would deliver instead, so you can compare the two properly.

The price of an internal alteration is driven by what the wall carries, the span of the new opening, whether the steel can be craned or must be carried in and lifted by hand, the number of services running through the wall, and the extent of making good: plaster, floor levels, skirting and decoration. A single-room knock-through with a modest span sits at one end of the range; a full-width flush opening with steel set into the floor zone and floor levels resolved between rooms sits at the other.

On site, the sequence is predictable. Protection and propping go in first, the opening is formed, the steel is lifted and pinned, and the props stay until loads have transferred. That structural phase is the dusty, noisy part and it is short. Plastering, drying time, making good and decoration then take longer than the structural work itself, which surprises people who assume the job finishes the day the wall goes.

We give you a written programme with the estimate that separates those stages, so you know which days are disruptive and when the room will be ready to use. Rooms are left plastered, levelled and decoration-ready as standard, with decoration available as a priced option.