Structural backup for your drawings.
When a residential project needs a sealed structural opinion your drawings can reference — an existing-conditions evaluation before you design around it, a load-bearing determination, a letter a building department will accept — we take it on as a standalone consulting engagement. No retainer. Order what the project needs, when it needs it.
What we add to a residential set.
Four ways a consulting P.E. gets pulled into a residential project — usually for one specific condition, not the whole job.
Sealed letters & reports
A signed, sealed opinion covering the specific structural question at hand — a bearing condition, a foundation detail, a point a plan reviewer or inspector wants engineered sign-off on. Delivered as a PDF your drawings can reference directly.
Existing-conditions evaluations
Before you design a renovation or addition, we can inspect the existing structure — foundation, framing, bearing walls — and hand you a report describing what's actually there, not what the original drawings assumed.
Load-bearing determinations
A field determination of whether a wall is load-bearing, with the framing and load path documented, so a removal or opening in the design has an engineered basis behind it. This practice runs as its own door: isitloadbearing.com.
Quick-turn reviews
When a plan reviewer or inspector raises a structural question mid-permit and the schedule can't absorb a slow response, we turn most reports around in 24 hours from the field visit.
How the engagement works.
Three steps, no ongoing contract. Order the report the project needs and we route it from there.
Call or request
Describe the property, the specific structural question, and your timeline — by phone or through the request form. We tell you upfront whether it's a fit.
Site visit
Scheduled within 24 hours in urban markets, 72 in rural. Our engineer or a supervised inspector documents exactly the condition that triggered the request.
Sealed deliverable
A signed, sealed letter or report, delivered as a PDF within 24 hours of the field visit — ready to attach to your set or hand to a reviewer.
When we're not the fit.
Worth saying plainly, before you send a request.
If the project instead needs a full inspection product — a manufactured home structural report, an FHA/HUD foundation inspection, or a PFGMH and affixation certification — see the complete services list for scope and turnaround on each.
Order a consult.
Send the address and the structural question — we'll confirm scope and timeline before anything is scheduled.