We are many things

That bit at the start of a job, when everyone’s still excited and wondering how we’re going to create whatever building it is we’re working on – that’s why we do what we do.

About Us
We are SPH Structures. We have drawn on extensive design and expertise within the London refurb and new build market to establish the firm. We are a young engineering firm, in personnel and history, but we aim to surround ourselves with the right people so that as a collective we can encourage, learn and build from each other to be the best engineers we can be! We are design engineers first and foremost (geeks a close second).

We love our projects, but its our interaction and relationship with people that makes everything worthwhile.

Our Process
We operate across stages 2-5 of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) plan of works which typically translates into planning / design and construction as shown below.

We Specialise In:

Airspace Developments

CLT

Glulam

Timber Frame

SIPS

Refurb and Listed Construction

Steel and Timber Connections

We Dabble In:

Foundations

Temporary Works

Lightweight and Steel Frame

Masonry

Concrete

Composite Design

Drainage

Where we areWe work at Ark Coworking. It’s a proper community, there’s a coworking bit next door with every business start-up you can imagine with people making that leap and doing it for themselves. We’re surrounded by what seems like mostly film producers or mens magazine people upstairs at the minute, a few charities, people writing their thesis and everyone in between. Needless to say we get our ears bent for the odd bit of advice here and there but it’s really nice being in an environment that isn’t just engineering and everyone is pushing and striving to make their own work come to life - that’s really cool.

Contact
Email Us
Call Us 0207 315 4147
M-F:9AM-5PM

Office Address‍237 Pentonville Road London N1 9NG

Registered AddressSuite 111, 48/48a Eaglewhard Road London N1 7ED

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Platinum House

project

architect:

Clements & Porter

estimated project cost:

£1M

Location:

Milton Keynes

Platinum House. There's a bit of history to this one.

We were originally appointed to conduct a visual condition survey on the property. The local council had received calls that this re-development (single storey added to existing 3 storey building) was unfit for use from tenants newly moved in and resultant checks from the fire brigade closed the place down.

We were called in on behalf of the bank who seized the property back from the developer and were looking to assess the extent of value that remained within their asset.

There was already some water leaks from the roof when we arrived and some opening up previously done. But on the whole it wasn't a good build.

But bracing connections weren't fully installed correctly and in some cases missing all together.

The roof steels cantilevered out at roof level without any thermal breaks (maintains the insulation line around the building). This would have created cold spots within each apartment. The steels were also painted in the same red oxide as the internal steels, their level of protection wouldn't have stood up long against environment conditions.

Columns not even secured down properly. Its actually the Structural Engineers job to keep an eye on site during the build, so I'm asking questions of them here too - whoever they were.

And the roof. There shouldn't be water ponding on a new roof. All in all, it got worse the more we looked at it from a structural, mechanical and electrical point of view.

A YEAR LATER....(and nearly forgotten). We get a call. 'Can you come to site'.

This Stuart the new site manager (good guy). Turns out the bank had sold the site to Errigal who had purchased the site with the aim of investing on behalf of their staff to give something back to them - love that! They'd been cracking on with a full strip out and came across our report as part of the documents package handed over at sale, so gave us a call.

The original frame was a steel frame with composite decking. Cross bracing was situated behind the infill masonry walls around the perimeter.

Some nice steel arrangement to suit the balconies above and tie in the façade here.

And then to the rooftop extension. Stuart was telling me they ripped out 3x different types of flooring in the end and were currently in the process of breaking out a lot of mass concrete just laid on top of the existing roof slab (we immediately jump to the numbers in our our head about loading and shake our head in disappointed and shock at the previous design/build). But. It gets worse, they were still finding remnants of the poor build.

Yep. That's a column just supported on the bolts. A big no-no for anyone non-the-wiser. You should be placing steel shims and then grouting out with a soft manageable concrete to provide a continuous bearing under the baseplate when you install it. This arrangement places all the load into the bolts which now act as mini columns.

Errigal wanted us to look at the possibility of adding a further storey on top, plus a rear extension to the ground floor. Sure thing!

We treated it as if the current single storey extension was part of the new scheme and analysed the original structure. Foundations, grand. Ground floor, ok. First and Second, need checking. Errigals preference was to retain the existing steelwork at third floor (previous development) and add a transfer deck over that to support a new lightweight steel frame - we didn't like it though for a number of reasons really, so proposed a couple of schemes:

Option A. Extend the line of the existing frame up to form one whole steel frame. Works well, but only problem is that the current steels on the top floor (existing extension) are undersized and would need removing.

Option B. Demolish the existing top floor and strengthen the old roof which had some pretty chunky steelwork there already. That would allow two stories of lightweight steelwork above and form a natural transfer deck within the original structure.

They went for option B! Stripped the whole lot out and we re-used as much of this back within the existing structure where we were chopping and changing, or as part of the proposed strengthening works to old roof deck.

The guys cracked on with a full strip out - did well.

Whilst we went on site to measure and then analyse 100+ beams to determine which needed strengthening and then the relevant details to do so (we didn't think this one through).

New structure over the old roof as we proposed.

The views from the new roof aren't half bad either.

Ballards Lane

project

architect:

GAA Design

estimated project cost:

£250k

Location:

Finchley Central, London

Welcome to Ballards Lane. This is a two-parter.

PART 1. THE ROOF EXTENSION.

(ARAD would be proud. https://www.arad.uk)

Architects proposed elevation shows a stepped roof extension running front-back. One of the largest risks on this project was the cast iron transfer structure at ground and first floor. Investigation works were required to determine whether the existing columns had enough redundant capacity to support an extra storey.

From the roof plan and section above you can see the extent of the step required across the property. This forced the use of cranked steels as the roof profile followed the step down and created some non-standard roof profiles.

Kudos goes to the contractor here, and we were lucky the roofer had a lot of experience and could visualise the arrangement.

Steelwork going in on the two images above. A tight site which the contractor did well to keep clean and tidy - makes a difference.

The top section at the front (first pic). Bottom section to the rear (second pic). Some nice views out across London from here.

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Sulgrave Road

project

architect:

Studio Fade

estimated project cost:

£100k

Location:

Shepherds Bush, London

Welcome to Sulgrave Road! The client approached us here to provide a rear elevation ground floor rear extension. The existing side return was to be infilled and a full width extension then added.

A slight complication...the first floor is partly owned by the client and the neighbour upstairs. With the neighbour owning the outrigger - directly above the area of the proposed works.

Proposed ground and first floor. 'Flat B' indicates extent of neighbouring structure.

Following receipt of the drawings. We overlaid the existing and proposed drawings to understand the extent of the works involved. The client had already commissioned one trial pit which showed shallow foundations,. And other was required to confirm extent of foundations required.

Construction Tolerances. We send these out on every project but they were especially important here with the neighbouring property above still in constant use. We discussed the extent of temporary works required with the contractor and method for achieving them to ensure a safe build.

Ground Conditions.

We knew from the our initial desktop survey that there was variable ground conditions here. Didn't expect them to be this varied however.

Working top-down. The black soil is organic / made ground. Loose yellow sand and gravel lies below with a denser band further down which ultimately lies above the London clay encountered some 2.0+ Below Ground Level.

The top of the timber indicated the proposed FFL for the rear extension here. A lot of excavation was required to form the dropped floor.

Steels in! The wall supported by the steel is the neighbours property. Not a single crack. Very proud (of our design and the contractors work).

Internal step change showing the extent of how far we went down.

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The client was very happy with the change in the end, and to be fair, we're delighted for them too. It'll make a big difference for them and its why we do what we do really.

North End Road

Project

architect:

Kubus Design Ltd

estimated project cost:

Circa £1.4M

Location:

Kensington, London

North End Road. An empty commercial unit on the high street. The proposal includes a change in existing floor height at second floor, in addition to increasing the existing ceiling height and strengthening for a future roof extension. The rear of the property will be demolished to make way for a new multi-storey residential scheme which includes a basement.

Full strip out revealed much of the original structure.

And corbelled foundations at basement level to the existing structure.

EMERGENCY WORKS. Prior to going on site, the neighbour noticed a crack forming on the front elevation at the party wall junction between our property and theirs. After a site investigation it was determined that each property had steel beams coming into the same location on the party wall (our at a higher level) which supported the front façade. Ultimately the masonry below has now begun to fail and which resulted in the cracks you see in this picture.

And installed over the next couple of days! Contractor was on it here it must be said. Very happy with the remedial and we'll pick up the masonry repair as part of our works going forward.

Extent of steelwork going in to create new floor zone.

Loading plans for the rear extension. These allow subcontractors such as steel connection designers (us in this instance) to carry out their designs and provides us with with something to check their designs against.

One steel connection sketch. Many schemes involve steel beams offset from the columns they connect into to suit the Architectural arrangement and position of incoming walls for instance. Easy enough to design for, but more involved to make it work practically.

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Chiswick High Road

Project

architect:

GuyLogan Architects

estimated project cost:

Unknown

Location:

Chiswick, London

Demolition of the existing upper storey which has a set-back mansard. Replaced with an extended floor plan to include a new habitual living space with terraces front and back. Roof to house a new plant area to service the commercial premises at ground floor.