Questions to Ask a Structural Engineer Before Hiring One for Your Home

The questions

Open any question to see why it works.

1. 1

   Are you a licensed professional engineer in my state, and what is your license number?

   Only a licensed PE can seal drawings or a report your building department, insurer or buyer will accept, and licensure is state by state, so a stamp from the next state over may not count here. The number lets you check the state board site for expiration and disciplinary history in about five minutes.

2. 2

   What share of your work is on existing houses like mine rather than new or commercial construction?

   Diagnosing a building that has already moved is a different skill from designing a new frame, and it runs on pattern recognition built across hundreds of similar homes. An engineer who mostly stamps warehouse steel will be slower and far more conservative reading your cracks.

3. 3

   Have you worked on homes of this age and foundation type in my area, and do you know the soils here?

   Expansive clay, uncompacted fill, high water tables and frost depth each leave distinctive damage patterns that a local engineer recognizes on sight. Someone who has looked at fifty post tension slabs in your subdivision knows what counts as normal there.

4. 4

   Do you have any financial relationship with contractors who might end up doing the repair, including referral fees?

   The most expensive reports in this field are the free ones arranged by a foundation repair company, because the recommendation gets written toward a product. You want an engineer whose entire fee comes from you and who will not be bidding the work.

5. 5

   What will I actually receive when you are finished: a letter of findings, sealed drawings, or calculations?

   Those are three different products at three different prices, and a permit for a new beam needs stamped drawings while an insurance claim needs a narrative letter. Settle it in the proposal or you will end up paying for a second engagement.

6. 6

   What is your fee, exactly what does it cover, and what would trigger an additional charge?

   Residential visits with a letter are often a flat fee, design work is hourly or lump sum by scope, and revisions after you change the plan are usually extra. Ask specifically what a second site visit, a drawing revision and a call with your contractor cost.

7. 7

   Will you personally do the site visit, or does a technician collect measurements for you to review?

   An engineer who never enters the crawl space is sealing someone else's notes, and the useful clues are the ones a technician does not think to record: doors that bind, a split girder, rust staining on a pier. If a technician does come, ask who interprets the data and whether you can speak to that person.

8. 8

   What access will you need, and what should I have ready before you arrive?

   Open crawl space hatches, an attic ladder, cleared closets and unlocked gates decide whether the visit is thorough or partly inferred. Asking now also surfaces whether they will want drywall or insulation opened, which lands on your budget and your schedule.

9. 9

   How long after the site visit will the written report or the drawings be in my hands?

   One to two weeks is typical, and firms booked solid after a storm season run longer, which matters when a closing date, permit window or insurance deadline is driving you. Get a date in the proposal instead of accepting soon.

10. 10

    Does this project need anything you do not provide, such as a geotechnical soils report, an architect or a surveyor?

    Structural engineers analyze the structure, not the dirt, so real questions about bearing capacity, expansive soil or deep foundations require a separate geotechnical engineer. Hearing the full team named up front keeps you from discovering a missing report halfway through plan review.

11. 11

    What do you think is causing this, and what evidence would change your mind?

    A careful engineer separates what they observed from what they concluded, and will name the two or three plausible causes, such as roof runoff at the corner, a failed footing or seasonal shrink and swell, plus what would confirm each. Total certainty on the first walk through, before any measurements, is usually salesmanship.

12. 12

    Is the movement still active or is it historic, and how will you determine which?

    This single question decides between spending money now and doing nothing, and answering it honestly takes floor elevation readings, crack width measurements, old paint or dirt lines inside cracks, or a monitoring period across a wet and a dry season. A vague answer here means every recommendation that follows is a guess.

13. 13

    Is monitor or do nothing a possible outcome here, and what would make you recommend it?

    Many cracks are cosmetic and much residential settlement finished decades ago, so an engineer who can describe the cases where they tell people to leave it alone is not working backward from a repair. If every report they have written ends in piers, the conclusion was decided before the visit.

14. 14

    For the wall I want to remove, how will you size the beam and follow the load down to the footings?

    The beam is the easy part, and the weak point in most amateur plans is the post below it, the bearing at each end and whether the existing footing can take a new concentrated load. Listen for point loads, continuous load path and a stated need to see the basement or crawl space before committing to a design.

15. 15

    Which code edition and load criteria will you design to, and does my jurisdiction have local amendments?

    Drawings prepared to the wrong adopted code edition get red lined in plan review, and wind, snow and seismic values are entirely local. An engineer who can name your jurisdiction's IRC or IBC edition and the ASCE 7 loads they will use has worked there recently.

16. 16

    Will you specify the repair yourself, or review a proposal a contractor has already given me?

    Both are legitimate services at different prices, and reviewing a pier proposal you already hold is often the most valuable cheap thing an engineer can do for you. Also ask whether they will write a repair specification that several contractors can bid, which is how you get comparable prices instead of one company's proprietary system.

17. 17

    If the building department comments on your drawings, will you respond and revise at no extra charge?

    Plan review comments are routine, and you should not be paying hourly to defend a design you already bought. Get the answer written into the proposal, because included in an email is worth far more than a shrug at the permit counter.

18. 18

    Will you return during construction to verify the work matches your design, and will you provide the letter the inspector wants at closeout?

    Many jurisdictions require a special inspection or a signed engineer's letter before they will sign off on structural work, and shoring, beam bearing and post connections are only visible while the wall is still open. Confirm how many construction visits are included and the price of each extra one.

19. 19

    Do you carry professional liability insurance, and does your agreement limit your liability to the amount of your fee?

    Errors and omissions coverage is what actually stands behind the seal if a design turns out to be wrong, and most engineering contracts cap liability, frequently at the fee itself. You may not be able to negotiate that clause out, but you should read it before signing rather than after a failure.

20. 20

    If this becomes a dispute with a seller, a builder or my insurer, will you stand behind this report and testify?

    Some engineers write observation letters that state they are not intended for litigation and will decline to be deposed, which leaves you holding a useless document at the worst moment. Ask their hourly rate for depositions and testimony now, and tell them up front if a claim is likely so the report is written accordingly.