Structural engineer fees

A LOT MATE! I got one to do a couple of drawings for me a couple of years back and he charged me £650 for the privilege! All the builders i had round for quotes on the job (a loft conversion) said he had just gone for the safe option with the rsjs and well overestimated the size actually need for the job. The problem was getting the f@@@@@s up there but six pairs of hands and a bad back later they were in situ. There are websites about that can help with rsj calculations if your handy enough to do the work yourself. Try www.diydoctor.com for a start.

 

Lorrich
Used a structural engineer to calculate RSJ for a wall removal. I got a site visit, written report with all calculations plus loads of extra advice about foundations, roof loading and pitch - just kept filling his mug with tea!..... all for £250.
BCO specified that I used a structural eng, and wanted to see the calcs.
Hope that helps ..

 

He is doing a simple calculation to determine the Bending moment and the shear force of a UDL on a beam to determine the beam size. God its a job for kids. It cannot be more than an hours work and a site visit.

Offer £250 and tell him to get on with it!

 

"Offer £250 and tell him to get on with it! "

try that with a plumber?

why should he work for less than that?

 

my advice is to pay what ever it is .

i know that sounds odd but ive youve done major works without any calculations and documentation then you will struggle if you ever want to sell.

trust me im right!!!

jon

 

In my experience there are three ways around this problem.

First is as you suggest, get a SE to do some calcs but see what his prices are like first.

Second, is contact the BCO and ask his advice. He will have seen countless numbers of similar jobs, so he'll more than likely be able to advise on the correct RSJ sections and supports etc. He may not want to though.

Third is get a book and do this yourself. When I was studying for my engineering degree we spend a while doing similar calcs for fun (urg!). I can't remember how to do it now because I did not chose the design option on the course, but there are standard derived formulae for a range of common sections, including H sections stressed in all directions, and for point and spread loads.

For my money and simplicity the BCO route is often the most expedient. It depends if you have a BCO that's wet behind the ears or one that's been around a while. The one for my area is great and so are all his colleagues. I have adopted the policy of working with them and seeking advice on best practise rather than just sticking to the regs.

I have used a SE for my underpinning project. That cost me a total of £200 for a site visit, detailed drawing and any reasonable help that I may require extra for that project. The BCO took one look at the drawing and said "fine, make a start then".

CC

 

Also did calculations for such things at college (whilst doing BTEC in Agriculture..) to work out beams required to install 600 litre diesel tank in shed roof - had to calculate load,choose beams,make templates for joint plates,do welding,calculate beam deflection,then finally fill the tank and measure deflection with a DTI and compare with calcualtion.

I can't remember how it's done now,either

So I'd go for the engineer (just try and find one on recommendation)

 

Speaking as a qualified SE £250 is probably top end for what I would charge. What you guys seem to miss out on is that when a beam is specified, the calcs for the beam are, relatively, easy, as long as you can accurately substantiate its effective length. This depends on the support conditions and effective restraint. Assuming you did this, working out the loads is probably more difficult. Add to this the fact that once the beam has taken up the load, it has to go somewhere and what the SE will do, as part and parcel of the job, is to check the walls, and padstones for suitability too, inclucing specifying local thickening of brickwork, or a steel column. All that for £250. It's a steal.

 

Dazed, you may have just talked yourself into some work here!

CC

 

Maybe so, I am open to offers. The other thing of course is that many of these single-beam spec jobs can be done from drawings if they are scaled and detailed enough. If I do not have to visit your site it would be even cheaper. That said, the drawings really need to be quite good with joist directions on, roof details etc.

 

Hi Lorrich,

Had something similar done recently - two sets of french doors in a gable wall.

Builder said "best get a SE to spec the catnic, give Ivan Atkins a call".

Ivan showed up in a new BMW 7 series, so I feared the worst about costs. He was here for about 40 minutes (including a brew), and sent the report & invoice two days later.

All the calcs were there (I'm a chartered Mechanical Engineer, so I could understand it), and the bill was £95...

BCO took one look at the report, another at the catnic on the ground, and said carry on...

I think the most difficult thing was to calculate the loads (estimated from height of wall, size of chimney, pitch of roof, etc) and knowing the properties of the bricks the catnic rests on.

Jobs done now; french doors still open & close after three months, so nothings moved !

From the rest of this thread, £95 seems incredible value !

HTH, DCH

 

Lol £95 was good back in 2005 , I paid £50 last week. Done it over the net at *. We are really deep in financial depression guys.
I hope Greece and Spain get better and all Europe cos otherwise we are *****.

Message was edited by: Screwfix Moderator

 

Dazed5 makes a good point. A friend of mine got a builder to do some alterations to his house. The builder said he could get the steels that were needed designed by a structural engineer on the cheap. The builder said there was no need for any drawings. The structural engineer designed 3 steels for £200 based on the information the builder gave him. It got checked and passed by Building Control. 6 months after the alterations were finished several big cracks appeared in the walls which the beams were sat on. My friend has been trying to get the problems fixed but the builder has gone bust and the structural engineer wasn't a chartered engineer and had no insurance. So he's stuffed basically. Building Control apparently don't provide any insurance cover for this kind of thing and apparently aren't responsible even though it has been found that the walls weren't strong enough and neither were the footings under the wall. Apparently, the damage caused is going to cost £25,000 to put right and it looks like my mate is going to have to fork out the lot. He's got a fully qualified structural engineer who is chartered and fully insured this time sorting it out as well as project managing the repairs. He says it's really opened his eyes to what can go wrong and to how many things need to be thought about by the structural engineer including whether taking a wall out will make the house unstable. He said that not only do the walls support the floors but they help to stop the house collapsing under high winds. In fact one of the walls he had removed is having to be rebuilt to get the stability back in to the house. My mate now tells everybody that there is no point trying to alter your house on the cheap because in the end it can end up messing your house up and your life as well as costing thousands to put right. I've seen the mess so I would definitely employ someone who knows what they are doing if I was considering making alterations to my house. Its just not worth the risk just to save a couple of hundred quid.