What the engineer produces

• A foundation design for your soil report — slab, pier and beam, or piers
• Framing design: beams, headers, posts and their connections
• Lateral design for your wind zone, and seismic where it applies
• A signed and sealed set your building department will accept

What you give the engineer

• The plan set you bought from us — that is the architectural half
• A geotechnical report for your lot, if your jurisdiction wants one
• Your address, so the wind, seismic and frost numbers can be pulled
• Any modifications you have made or asked us to make

Why it is not included

Structural design is site-specific. The same house on expansive clay in San Antonio and on rock in the Hill Country needs two different foundations, and neither is the one it needs in a coastal wind-exposure county. A structural package drawn for the original lot would be worthless to you, and dangerous if used anyway.

It also has to be sealed by a professional licensed in the state where you build. That licence is jurisdictional — it is not something a drawing set can carry with it.

What it usually costs

It varies by market, house size and foundation type, and we will not publish a number we cannot stand behind. What we will do is tell you exactly what to ask for, so the quotes you collect are comparable to each other.

We are a construction company. Coordinating engineers is what this office does on every project — architectural and MEP design coordination, project management, and sitting between the engineers, the owner and the trades until the thing is finished.

For projects in the San Antonio area we can do this work directly. Tell us where you are building and which set you bought, and you will get a straight answer about whether that is us or a referral.

Further afield, ask anyway. We will tell you what to request and how to read the quotes that come back.

Ask about engineering