Grunff wrote:

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Structural engineer is MANDATORY. NOT expensive either usually. DO
WHAT THEY SAY and then you can sue them - or your insurance company
can, when the house falls down.


What qualifications should one look for in a structural engineer? Are
all structural engineers listed in the yellow pages equal?


The most important thing is that they have insurance. If you ask your
local building inspector I am sure he will know who to use.

I am pretty sure that they have some certification. Institute of
structural engineers or summat. Round here ther is just one company, who
everybody uses. The way I had it from everybody was 'if you use X, and
do what they say, then you are completely covered' I did, and it cost me
a measly couole of hundred quid AFAICR to get an aspect of my design
fully qualified and specced out. I have a thick report on loadings and
deflections and so on that is very impressive, and completely
impenetrable, and satisfied the builiding inspector and the architect.

The thing is, it doesn't cost a huge amiount extra to use a big rod
versus a small one, and they overspecify to cover their arses, so
whatever they recommend won't be 'good enough' it will be 'massively
more than good enough' and they make their money from the report and
recommendations, not from installing extra bits at your expense.