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"I was very disappointed. Their report was through, detailed and useless. It said the house had experienced normal and natural movement, and recommended putting in very expensive foundation pilings. This is certain to make it more difficult to sell, and they refused to add any mitigating discussion of whether such movement is common or the likely outcomes of actions taken or not taken. They took over 100 photographs of every flaw, problem and imperfection so nobody can ever claim they weren't thorough but they offered no engineering judgement or opinion at all. I got little more from them than I could have gotten for free from a piling salesman. It appeared they were not concerned at all about my needs as a customer, but only about covering themselves should any legal issues ever arise. The other part of this report had to to with roof construction. It stated that roof movement had occurred that was not normal, pointed out inadequacies in the framing, and recommended strengthening the construction. They still offered no engineering judgement, but this problem was at least more clear cut."

Walter E on June 2018

LIC: #23264, #17268, #10024.

"I was very disappointed. Their report was through, detailed and useless. It said the house had experienced normal and natural movement, and recommended putting in very expensive foundation pilings. This is certain to make it more difficult to sell, and they refused to add any mitigating discussion of whether such movement is common or the likely outcomes of actions taken or not taken. They took over 100 photographs of every flaw, problem and imperfection so nobody can ever claim they weren't thorough but they offered no engineering judgement or opinion at all. I got little more from them than I could have gotten for free from a piling salesman. It appeared they were not concerned at all about my needs as a customer, but only about covering themselves should any legal issues ever arise. The other part of this report had to to with roof construction. It stated that roof movement had occurred that was not normal, pointed out inadequacies in the framing, and recommended strengthening the construction. They still offered no engineering judgement, but this problem was at least more clear cut."

Walter E on June 2018

Structural Engineering questions, answered by experts

Yes. Foundation walls are always load-bearing.

Although the two terms are closely related and often used interchangeably, pier and beam foundations and crawl spaces are different things. A pier and beam foundation is made up of concrete piers and wooden beams and creates a space under the home known as a crawl space. There are several types of foundations that create crawl spaces, often collectively known as “crawl space foundations,” but the crawl space itself is separate from the foundation. 

Structural engineers draw structural plans, which include detailed drawings of the structural components of a home only. Complete house plans will require additional work from an architect or draftsperson, whose drawings will take the structural drawings into account. They’ll also include more details about the finishing materials and layout of a home, including everything from roofing and flooring materials to the position of furniture, light fixtures, switches, and plumbing fixtures.

All foundations have footers, including monolithic slabs. In some cases, the foundation itself acts as the footer, as in the case of a floating slab and a monolithic slab. With a monolithic slab, the footers—which are just the bottom-most portion of the foundation that distributes loads down to stable soil—are a part of the main slab and are constructed with a single pour.

A 4-inch-thick concrete slab can support around 4,000 pounds per square foot if a contractor reinforces the slab with rebar, while that same slab without reinforcements will support closer to 1,000 pounds. For the purposes of a patio, 4 inches in thickness without reinforcement should suffice unless you’re installing heavy kitchen equipment or a hot tub on it. In those cases, reinforcing your slab and sticking with 4 inches of thickness should provide plenty of strength.

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