A structural review is basically a site visit that an engineer conducts at the house or property in question. We provide a thorough inspection around the perimeter, interior, attic, and crawl space—wherever is needed to fully understand the context of the problem and eliminate, through a process of elimination, other possible mechanisms or causes. Sometimes a structural issue can also have a confluence of multiple factors and causes.

Why does it matter?

A structural assessment by a structural engineer is powerful because you have someone with years of experience who understands how a house works and can, without guessing, determine the cause of the problem in nearly every case.

Most foundation companies will provide a free assessment, but they will send a salesman instead of a structural engineer, and most foundation companies are not structural engineers at all. They are contractors. An engineer coming out has no incentive to sell anything and is really just trying to figure out what is going on and provide an opinion. We are also, as engineers, held to a code of ethics that we must follow.

Sometimes a contractor will also bid very high to address structural concerns and make extensive repairs, especially to crawlspaces and foundations. Because a contractor is not a structural engineer, they may address problems that may or may not actually be structural concerns out of an abundance of caution and to reduce their own liability or legal risk. We can eliminate a lot of potential bloat or unnecessary work in a contractor's bid by narrowing down exactly what needs to be fixed and providing a cost-effective repair. This can often save thousands of dollars compared with having a contractor bid repairs directly from a home inspection report without an engineer's assessment.

An engineer's assessment can instead identify exactly what is structurally necessary, what is not, and how the necessary repairs should be completed.