Structural engineer

[Jennifer Ceren tapp]

Has anyone had experience working with a structural engineer?  We are looking to buy a home for our personal residence that has major foundation cracks.  (This is a foreclosure). What did the engineer charge you? 

[Steve K.]

The engineer is correct and giving you all the possible scenarios.  Structural engineer designs the foundation, assuming many design parameters.  One parameter is load bearing capacity of the soil directly underneath.  To design a proper long term fix, the structural engineer does need to do a geotech exploration to verify the soil composition and ground soil's load bearing capacity.  Geotech exploration involves digging with a backhoe or core drill.  And then analyze the soil layers for the final determination.  Sometimes a separate geotech engineer is involved.  I don't know what the local practice or code requirement is.  

You can get a rough cost estimate by doing some legwork.  For example, ask how deep a hole would need to be excavated for soil exploration.  Go to Hertz or local equipment rental and see what the rental charge is per day for the equipment.  

Walk around the property and see if there is a ground water issue that's causing the foundation settling.  For example if the property is on a slope, a french curtain drain installed upslope may be recommended to avoid further ground shifting.  

If you aren't comfortable with this particular structural engineer, find another one and get a second opinion.  Just my 2 cents, etc.  Good luck.