House & Building Engineering

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Roy Kim was professional, punctual, and polite. His fee was extremely reasonable. He took his time and explained everything in detail and with ease. I would recommend him to anyone concerned with the foundation of their home. He will provide an un bias assessment.

Awesome. So glad I listened to the other reviews and went with them!

There was a scheduling issue that was completely my fault, so Roy was not able to do the work.   He was very courteous in working it out with me after I loused up his schedule.

Chris Kim, a professional engineer, came out promptly.  He examined the wall that we wanted to remove (load-bearing) that had a
garage beneath and second floor and attic above. He examined structure in garage and basement as well as the hallway upstairs and the structure of the roof in the attic. He was very informative and gave a lot of information as he was making his inspection and measurements.  He answered any and all questions we had and included what he thought the cost would be for the project to give us an idea of price to expect.  He also said that we and/or whoever did the work could call him anytime with questions about his report, specs and drawings.  The report was emailed and sent by regular mail within 10 days (he emailed to say that he apologized for the slight delay...he had promised it in 7 days).  He had told us if we needed the report earlier he could get it to us, but we did not need it right away so the week-10 day time frame was no problem AND he contacted us to let us know about the delay (even though it was only 3 days).  He also contacted us again to let us know he was emailing the report that evening and putting it in the mail the next day.
Included in the very detailed report was a nice letter, again emphasizing that we/contractor could call with any questions.  He also recommended having 3 estimates done and provided the names, addresses and numbers of three contractors he had worked with often.
We would use his services again and would highly recommend him.

Mr. Kim arrived a few minutes late which didn't surmise me as I live in the boonies. He was very professional, but personable at the same time. Mr. Kim did a thorough investigation of the house to see what damage has already been done so he could determine the cause. He was here approximately two hours and I felt he did an excellent job. Now it's up to me to find a contractor who can follow his instructions in doing the repairs correctly. I would gladly use this provider again if the need arose and I would recommend him to my friends and family.

My wife and I were both impressed with Roy.  First, he was very professional and knowledgeable.  He spent a great deal of time understanding our concerns.  He cared.  Second, he performed a thorough investigation of the suspect areas and promptly provided a detailed report.  When I had questions, Roy emailed with a large amount of information.  Certainly he provided more service than for what we paid.  Finally, Roy listened to our input.  I felt as if we were collaborating on solutions (as an engineer myself, this made me really excited!) instead of being lectured.  His structural solutions were very clear.  When asked about contractor recommendations, he provided a list; the contacted contractors raved about working with Roy and his professionalism.  We are excited to utilize Roy again for designing an addition.

We were exteremely pleased with the services provided by Chris Kim. He was thorough and knowledgable, providing detailed sketches and the required information for submission to our local building official. The work was delivered to us in a timely manner.
We highly recommend the Kim's to anyone requiring the services of a residential structural engineer in the Pittsburgh area.

This project could have been a nightmare, but Roy and his son were very professional and responsive and worked very well with our contractor.  Roy answered our calls and expertly addressed our questions and concerns.  Although it cost us much more than we anticipated, his price for each visit and drawing was fair.  It certainly wasn't his fault that we needed him to come back several times -- the nature of an old house.  Thanks to the Kims, this place is SOLID!

Roy is a very professional, very competent engineer.  I stayed with him for the entirety of his evaluation as we walked around my house taking measurements.  Being an engineer myself (although in a completely different field), I was curious to see what methods and techniques Roy would use.  He was very methodical in his evaluation... as he made measurements he explained to what he was doing at each step of the way, and occasionally asked me questions.   It was an interactive meeting, and at the end I felt like I had a better understanding of what was going on as well as what I should do to correct it.
I will say that based on my technical background, Roy and I agreed that he did not need to write up a formal report, since we had basically discussed his evaluation as he was doing it.  This ended up saving me some money since Roy didn't have to make his report up.

Went well from start to finish.

It was an excellent experience. I would definitely call Mr. Kim again if I needed architectural/engineering drawings for a project.

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Roy Kim was very quick to answer our inquiry.  He was very pleasant and professional.  After assessing our situation, he was very willing to look at our quotes and help with our decision... with the understanding that it was his opinion based upon what he was being presented.  Yep. That's why we called him.  After discussing warranties, coverage, and pricing, he pointed out a clear winner.  He had very sound and reasoned logic, and years of experience which we understood and appreciated.  He pointed out things that someone without an engineering degree just doesn't see.  It made us feel very good about a decision we had been delaying because we were unsure.  What a sense of relief.

Mr. Kim provided an excellent service and I would recommend him to anyone.  He was professional and courteous in our interaction and his review of my foundation issue was very detailed and comprehensive.  He spent time reviewing the cracks from the inside and the outside of the house, noted their location and size, and reviewed the potential causes with me. Mr. Kim provided a written report summarizing his observations and provided recommendations base on his findings.  His report and recommendations were clear and concise and met my expectations.

Outstanding! 

He is extremely knowledgeable.  He's very professional, polite, prompt...all of those things.  Without his report, we would have had severe difficulty.  The contractor that came out wanted to do something else, and that would have been devastating to our end result.  We were able to use the report that Mr. Kim gave us as a backup.  We could have ended up in court, in fact, had we not had that report.

Mr. Kim came to inspect throughout the process, while the work was being done.   

Chris Kim was punctual, remarkably professional and extremely motivated to explore the property. When he discovered an issue, he explored it from multiple dimensions, looking for evidence across the home site to frame the exact type, extent and (to the best of his ability) source of the problem. He was especially tolerant of our many questions and spoke in terms that were both technically specific, demonstrating his extensive knowledge, and instructional, as we are generally inexperienced with basements and building structure. He was never condescending, and while I believe his company does many of the repairs he recommended, I never felt as though his recommendations were tied to a particular contractor -- they were independent and well motivated by what he observed in and around the house.

Chris spent 2 hours at the home site and 2 hours afterwards to write up our report. He probably spent 30-40% of his time answering my questions. In his report, he included pictures (an absolute must for any quality inspection), detailed descriptions of the problem and detailed specifications for taking corrective action. I feel confident that I could hand these specs to a contractor, tomorrow.

While he did find important structural issues in the house (basement wall deterioration and shoddy construction concealed within an addition to the house, for example), we felt far more confident in our purchase because we better understood the scope of these existing problems. Our general home inspector, for example, did not identify any of the issues he discovered.

I personally found his price to be very reasonable and reflective of his knowledge and skill -- it's better to pay for this type of service up front, then to pay for structural repairs afterwards, even if you walk-away as a buyer. Hands down, I highly recommend Mr. Kim to anyone purchasing a new home that is old, or where there is visible structural concerns that make you nervous. We feel confident we can call on him again in the future should we ever need this expertise again.

My husband and I had a couple of foundation repair companies and contractors come out to examine the problem we uncovered with our addition's foundation (the foundation has settled over time causing cracks in the foundation walls and the footer), and we were provided with different solutions for our problem from each company/contractor.  As a result, we were unsure of what would be the proper solution for our problem, and we wanted an unbiased and honest opinion on the state of the addition's foundation as well as the proper course of action to fix the foundation.  After reading the structural engineering reviews on Angie's List for House & Building Engineering, we called the company and set up an appointment for Chris to come out to assess our problem.  He was prompt, polite, and extremely professional.  My husband had emailed Chris a list of our questions/concerns since my husband was not able to be home when Chris was scheduled to be here, and Chris discussed those questions/concerns with me while examining the foundation.  Additionally, he provided us with an email response to our questions within a day of examining the foundation.  Chris thoroughly inspected the foundation and took several measurements, photos, and notes during his inspection.  At the time of the inspection, he provided me with his honest and professional opinion as to the state of the addition's foundation, and within a week, we received a thorough written report from Chris with his assessment of our foundation and solutions for our problem.

Well.  The report was well done and he was very responsive.  Will use him again/recommend him.

Chris is extremely professional and knows what he is doing.  He answered all of our questions and explained what could be done to correct our problems.  He also made suggestions on things we should consider when replacing the patio.  We were looking for an evaluation of the problem that wasn't slanted towards a particular solution, and we felt that Chris gave us an unbiased opinion.  We feel more confident of the steps we need to take having received the evaluation of a professional engineer.  Their price was reasonable and we feel it was money well spent.  We would definitely call Chris again!

Roy and his son, Chris from HOUSE & BUILDING ENGINEERING (HBE) met with us on site of the home we intended to purchase - a 100 year old home in Observatory Hill. They were very punctual, courteous and professional. They reviewed everything as required and more. The initial report provided by Chris  highlighted 7 different areas of the home and detached garage structure that needed attention. After discussions with the mortgage company Chris brought that down to 4 conditions that should be addressed. These conditions were addressed as requested. However, after the work was completed and reviewed, HBE would not sign off that the home was structurally sound.

We requested contractors to provide quotes for the work that HBE then said was required to make the structure sound. We were quoted far above the numbers that HBE said would be the cost AND none of the contractors would do the work (all of who are listed on Angie?s List with high grades - as is HBE). The contractors all refused to do the work because the structural issues in question had been in that state since the previous owners moved in 10 years prior, and because if they did the work, they would do far more damage to the house. (I tend to back the contractors on this, whoever heard of a contractor refusing to do work, especially in these tough economic times?) So as a result of this, HBE never signed off that the house was structurally sound, and the work was not completed, so no mortgage.

HBE did point out other issues that were resolved to satisfaction by HBE by a contractor.

The price for the service was far above what was quoted, because of the extra work HBE did, however for the value of the service, I would only give a 5 of 10 since they never signed off that the house was sound after the work was completed as required in their report. The mortgage was never approved.

To be fair PNC Mortgage had a hand in this not going through as well since the mortgage loan broker was completely incompetent and told us that the underwriter would approve the fixes to the property based on the revised report, even though he did not check with the underwriter prior to telling all parties this. However, had we known that HBE would not sign off on the home that it was structurally sound after the revised report was completed, we would have chosen a different route and not continued to use the services of HBE.

Based upon the good reviews from Angies List, we contacted House and Building Engineering to perform an engineering and structural anaysis of a detached 3 car garage.  We called and left a message for the work.  The call was returned later that day.  We made arrangements to meet at the site.  Chris and Roy arrived promptly, at the time that had been agreed upon.  As the structure has two owners, they wereable to access 2/3 of the building and provide a complete report on the deficiences to the strucsture.  We discussed the issues that were present during the time they spent on site.  They took measurements of the building and noted all areas of concern.  They were extremely professional and efficient in their work. The next day we were sent a detailed report that we could share with all parties involved in a discussion concerning the sale of said property.  The payment was what we expected and everything was completed with a great deal of satisfaction. We would recommend them to anyone using Angies List.