Smithy's Welding Works 07772 840861Call
A red steel frame standing finished on its brick base, with open ground behind it

Taking a wall out, and holding up what was on it

Knock a wall through, open up the back of the house, or put a new floor inside a warehouse or a workshop. Something has to carry the weight afterwards. That something is welded steel, and this page is that steel.

Call 07772 840861 WhatsApp a photo

If you are the builder

Send the engineer's schedule, which is the list of sizes and which strength of steel to use, and the steel gets made to it. End plates line up with what the drawing says, because there is no adjusting any of it once it is on site.

WhatsApp the schedule Call 07772 840861

The words your builder will use

Here is what each one means.

RSJ, or a beam
The steel beam that holds the wall up when you knock through. RSJ just means it is a rolled steel joist, which is the shape of it.
Portal frame
The steel frame a building or an extension gets built around, rather than a single beam in a wall.
Mezzanine
A new floor built inside a space you already have, so one tall room becomes two useful levels.
Props
Adjustable steel legs that hold the building up while the opening is cut and before the beam goes in. They come out afterwards.
End plate
The flat plate welded on the end of a beam so it can be bolted to the next one, or to the wall, exactly where the drawing says.
Red oxide
The red paint steel gets before it goes in, to stop it rusting. It is why the steel in these photographs is red.

Steel nobody sees again

Once the plasterboard is on you never look at it again. It only has to hold.

Beams over openings that have been knocked through. Frames standing in the back of an extension. A floor dropped inside a brick arch. Plates that have to line up with what the engineer drew, because there is no adjusting any of it once it is on site.

If an engineer has given you a schedule, send it across and the steel gets made to it. A schedule is just the list of sizes, and which strength of steel to use. If you have not got that far, a photo of the wall is enough to start.

Steel on site

See all 52 photographs

Almost all of it is photographed in red primer, before any of the trades that follow it turn up.

A red steel frame standing in the back of a house, bolted to the brickwork, ready for the extension to be built around it
Adjustable steel legs and red beams holding the back of a house open part way through the work
A white painted steel frame inside an industrial building
A steel floor built inside a brick arch, so one tall space becomes two levels
A red steel frame put up on a cleared site next to an old metal barn
Red steel beams running across the inside of an industrial building
A red steel beam carrying the wall above a new opening
A red steel frame and adjustable steel legs at the back of an old house
A white steel frame and a red steel staircase inside an industrial building
Red steel beams and posts carrying the roof of an industrial building
A red steel frame and beam over a new opening at the back of a house
A red steel beam across the back of a two storey house, propped and scaffolded

Who this is usually for

Homeowners taking a wall out and needing something to carry what was above it. Builders who need the steel made to a schedule. Warehouses and workshops where a frame, an extra floor or a new opening is the whole job.

For homes and for businesses, across Kent and the surrounding areas.

Red steel beams and adjustable legs inside a ground floor stripped back to bare walls

Send the sizes, or send a photo

If an engineer has already given you the steel sizes, WhatsApp them across and we will price it. If nobody has, a photo of the wall you want gone is enough to start the conversation.

Free quotes, no obligation, across Kent and the surrounding areas.

07772 840861 Ring Lewis and talk it through WhatsApp a photo Quickest way to show him the job

Or send a message instead. You do not need to know what the thing is called.