What is a Structural Engineer’s role?
“Our work involves ensuring that the structure of a building…..is adequate to support the weight of the building and its occupants and to resist environmental loads”
A structural engineer in general provides specialist advice, calculation and design in regard to the structure of an object. We work within the building and construction industry and are consequently involved primarily with the structure of buildings or other civil works such as retaining walls or bridges. Our work involves ensuring that the structure of a building, be it traditional brick masonry or a frame in timber, steel or concrete, is adequate to support the weight of the building and its occupants and to resist environmental loads such as wind, snow and temperature change. Typically, in detail it extends to the specification of individual structural elements such as joists and beams and lintels, together with any connections of these that are out of the ordinary. Our scope often includes the design of foundations, where we will use our Geotechnical Engineering expertise to interpret information on the ground conditions obtained by on site investigation and testing into data required for the foundation design.
Why do I need one?
A typical project involving new construction would see us working alongside an Architect to design, specify, draw, and inspect during construction, the structural elements. The structural elements may vary from a single new beam to an entire building. We typically provide the information required to cover Part A of the Building Regulations.
Our work also includes the survey, investigation and reporting on defects in building or other civil structures. This is typically related to cracking or movement. Our surveys are focussed on the building structure and for a complete building survey we would recommend approaching an Architect or Surveyor in the first instance.