Residential Structural Inspections
A licensed engineer
puts it in writing.
Your home inspector flagged a crack. A contractor quoted a repair. Neither of them is a licensed structural engineer, and neither of them is neutral.
A structural inspection is not a home inspection. A home inspector is trained to observe and report conditions across the whole house. A Professional Engineer is licensed to analyse a structural condition, determine what caused it, and design the fix if one is needed.
That is why home inspectors refer clients here. Their report is doing its job when it says “recommend evaluation by a structural engineer”. This is that evaluation.
Under contract and the clock is running
A large share of this work is buyers inside a contingency period who need to know whether the thing in the report is a five hundred dollar issue or a fifty thousand dollar one. Tell us the deadline when you call.
Sellers and owners
Sellers use the same report to keep a sale from collapsing over a condition that turns out to be historic and stable. Owners use it to decide whether to act now or monitor.
What independence actually buys you
We do not perform repairs and have no relationship with any repair contractor. There is no version of this report where a larger scope benefits us.
What we look at
- Foundation walls and footings, cracking, bowing, displacement and settlement
- Framing, joists, girders, beams, columns and bearing conditions
- Floors that sag, slope or bounce
- Wall and ceiling cracking, and whether it is structural or finish
- Previous repairs and modifications, including undocumented alterations
- Water, drainage and grading where they are driving the structural condition
- Whether the movement is active or has stabilised
Interactive
Which crack do you actually have?
Click a crack on the wall. This is not a diagnosis, it is the reasoning an engineer applies before ever visiting. Character, direction and location are what separate a cosmetic crack from a structural one.
Click a crack
Vertical crack
Usually the least concerning
A near vertical crack running up through a poured wall, often widest in the middle and tapering at both ends, is most commonly shrinkage. Concrete cures and contracts, and it relieves that stress somewhere.
What changes the answer: whether it is widening over time, whether one side has displaced relative to the other, and whether water is coming through it.
Frequently needs sealing for water rather than structural repair. Worth confirming, not worth panicking about.
Stair step crack
Take this one seriously
Cracking that follows the mortar joints in a stepped diagonal through block is the classic signature of differential settlement. One part of the footing has moved relative to another, and the wall has failed along its weakest line.
The direction of the step points toward the settling end. Width matters, and so does whether the block faces have displaced out of plane rather than just separated.
The first question is whether the movement is still active. That determines whether you are repairing a wall or underpinning a foundation.
Horizontal crack
The one to call about
A horizontal crack running along a course, typically around mid height on a basement wall, means lateral pressure. Saturated or expansive soil is pushing in, and the wall is bending rather than settling.
Look for the wall bowing inward at the crack line. If a straightedge held vertically shows daylight in the middle, the wall is deflecting under load.
This is the failure mode that progresses. It is also the one where fixing the drainage matters as much as reinforcing the wall, because the soil pressure is the actual cause.
Diagonal crack from a corner
Depends entirely on where it starts
Diagonal cracking radiating from the corner of an opening is usually stress concentration around that opening, and is often minor. Diagonal cracking running from a building corner down toward the footing is a settlement indicator and is not minor.
The same geometry means two very different things depending on origin, which is exactly why a photograph alone is rarely enough.
Tell us where it starts and where it ends. That one detail usually determines whether a site visit is urgent.
How It Works
How an inspection runs
Call or send photos
The home inspection report, a few photos and the address. Often we can tell you on the phone how concerned to be.
Site inspection
A structural evaluation of the condition and everything connected to it, including the basement, crawl space and exterior grading.
Determine the cause
Structural, geotechnical or water. Active or historic. This is the finding everything else depends on.
Written report
Findings, cause, recommendation, and what happens if nothing is done. Written to be handed to a lender, an agent or a contractor.
Repair design if needed
If a fix is required, it can be designed and detailed as a separate step.
Common Questions
Straight answers
How much does a residential structural inspection cost?
It depends on the size of the house, the travel and the complexity of the condition. Call with the address and a description and you will get a straight number rather than a range that means nothing. It is almost always a small fraction of the repair being contemplated.
How fast can you come out?
Tell us if you are inside a contingency period. Real estate deadlines are treated as real deadlines here.
My home inspector said to get a structural engineer. Is that serious?
It means they found something outside their scope to analyse, which is different from finding something dangerous. Plenty of these evaluations conclude that the condition is historic, stable and needs nothing. You still want to know that from someone licensed to say it.
Do you give a written report or just a verbal opinion?
A written report, because the entire point is that you can hand it to somebody else. A verbal opinion is not usable in a negotiation or with a lender.
Do you also design the repair?
Yes, as a separate step if the report concludes one is needed. We do not perform the repair work itself, which is what keeps the report independent.
Under contract with a deadline?
Say so when you call. Contingency periods get prioritised.