In general, Structural Engineers design the structures around us to withstand the vertical and horizontal forces acting upon them, so that they safely transmit these to the foundations without excessive movement or deformation.

Structural Engineers are responsible for choosing the appropriate construction materials and methods are adopted for the project, which will also suit the project scale and budget.

project scale and budget.

You will need to appoint a qualified Structural Engineer if you want to undertake any refurbishments at your property such as removing an internal wall, building a new extension, or converting your loft into a habitable room.

A Structural Engineer will also be required when building a new property, buildings, or a factory etc. It is important to know that a Structural Engineer is nearly always required for a building project to ensure it is safe.

A Structural Engineer will provide you with a full structural package that would include structural design calculations and drawings. They will be used by your Architect to produce Building Regulations drawings and by the Contractor to initially price the work and later during the construction process to build.

All documentation provided will be suitable for Building Regulation approval and issued for construction status purposes.

The Architect or the Client will need to provide us with a set of existing and proposed architectural drawings or sketches (for smaller projects) for us to review. Following which, we will prepare a fee proposal for the project anticipated input. The fee proposal will confirm our fee, schedule of services, terms and timescales for completing the works.

If the Client is happy to proceed, they will need to formally instruct us by signing and returning our agreement at the back of the fee proposal. We will add the new project to our programme and arrange to undertake our visit at convenient date and time.

If foundation trial pits or opening works are requested to allow the design work to proceed, this will need to be carried by the Client or their Contractor ready for our visit. We will advise of any such requirements following our instruction.

The first stage is to organise the site visit to familiarise ourselves with the existing property and to inspect any opening up works or foundation trial pits that have been requested by us.

Once the site visit is completed, we will start preparing our structural drawings and calculations. We always work closely and coordinate our designs with the Architect (if appointed) to make sure that all drawings both structural and architectural are coherent. This avoids confusion for the Contractor on site and surprise for you as the Client.

Once our drawings have been reviewed and approved by the Architect, we issue our full structural package to the Client and Architect. The Architect will normally forward our structural package to Building Control for review and approval. However, in some instances when there is no Architect, the Client will be responsible for this transmittal.

When your project is on site and construction in underway, if you have any questions, we are on hand to support you and your Contractor via emails or phone calls which is normally included for within our fee (within reason).

If you decide you want to make changes during the build or experience an unforeseen issue and us to visit your property, this is not a problem, and we will accommodate. However, this would be chargeable additional work and we would agree this cost in advance with you before proceeding.