Spence Engineering

Appeared on time. Spent 1 hr on site performing a visual survey and then received a bill for $743.75. A written two page report was generated. Be vey careful with the price. You will be paying for time spent on travel and for creating the report.

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I used Martin Spence to examine a potential structural issue for a home I am purchasing. Was very impressed with his professionalism and knowledge. He was very punctual and worked very hard to adjust to my schedule. He was examining the foundation in a basement of a home which had sheetrock covering the concrete wall. Rather than insisting on me having a contractor remove the sheetrock and then come come back, he actually got his hands dirty and started sawing the sheetrock and removing the portions of the wall he needed to conduct his due diligence (after confirming we had permission to do this).
He is a professional engineer but did not think it was beneath him to start removing sheetrock because it was something that was needed to do the inspection. This was clearly beyond the scope of the engagement but he did it; this shows his level of customer service.
He verbally provided detailed explanation of his findings and will be sending me a detailed report in the next few days.
I would highly recommend and use again.
Thanks Martin!

The home inspection for the house that my son is under contract on turned up a number of cracks in the foundation. He wanted to get a structural engineer out to determine whether they were serious problems or easy repairs. Martin was able to make an appointment to come look at it within a few days, and very professionally assessed the nature of the cracks and the cost of repair. He also offers to write up an official report that can be used in negotiations with the seller for an additional fee, but because the problems were ultimately not major, my son will probably not have to use that service. Overall - my son reports that he was very professional, knew what he was doing, and would definitely use him again if necessary.

When I first spoke with Martin, he suggested consulting a contractor so as not to waste our money. I thanked him but said I wanted an unbiased opinion. He agreed to come out. He arrived right on time and looked at all the areas where we thought we may have problems. He told us what work we might need to do in the near future to remedy some of the problems. He spent an hour with us going over everything we had questions about. He was very helpful and gave us the information we needed to decide whether we needed to have certain types of work done.

In the middle of my kitchen remodel, we discovered that the header beam was not enough to support the second floor. The side beams were out of alignment. After consultation with the Borough building inspector, he recommended either an architect or structural engineer be consulted. I called Martin on a Tuesday afternoon and he was able to come out Thursday morning. He was collaborative with my contractor, described the scope of work, and had plans drawn up within 24 hours so that I could submit them to the Borough for approval. He responded with the sense of urgency I needed since we had to halt construction, he was kind to both me and my contractor, and he accomplished the task in a speedy, cost effective fashion. I would definitely recommend him to any of my friends, and I would absolutely use him again.