OUR SERVICES
We offer a traditional professional service tailored to the requirements and priorities of our clients. Our involvement starts with a detailed understanding of our brief; the project requirements and our client’s aspirations.
We communicate our ideas via drawings and sketches and all our engineering work is carried out in house. We share our knowledge and creative thinking with those design professionals involved in all our projects for the benefit of our clients.
We work on a wide range of buildings from refurbishments to new-build projects.
THE PARTY WALL etc. ACT 1996
As structural engineers we are ideally placed to act as party wall surveyors and represent building owners and adjoining owners when notifiable building work is undertaken. Most of our clients instruct us to carry out the engineering design as well as acting as party wall surveyors.
The benefits for the project are considerable as this approach strikes a sensible balance between economy and unnecessary use of resources.
RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS
We provide a tailored service to meet the needs and budget of our clients. We work for home owners, builders and developers.
Our most common work include the design and detailing of basement extensions and excavations; rear extensions; side infills; loft conversions; conversion of pavement vaults; removal of load-bearing walls and knock-throughs.
We can get involved at the start of the project and collaborate with the Architect to achieve the vision of our clients or just prepare structural drawings and calculations for Building Control approval. Most of our work involves refurbishment or alterations to existing properties but we occasionally work on new-built projects.
COMMERCIAL PROJECTS
We work closely with Architects, M&E engineers and other disciplines in a design team to develop building solutions which are practical and achieve good value for money for our clients.
Our work starts with a complete understanding of our brief, the history of the site and its constraints. We explore design ideas and communicate these via sketches and drawings. This approach allows us to respond to the brief early and in an effective way. This is highly regarded by our retail clients who have very constricted programmes to open their retail spaces.
We transfer our design ideas into precise working information; we use powerful computer software that allows us to design complex structures and we prepare CAD drawings for tender, for construction and for inclusion in O&M manuals at the end the construction phase.
We visit our construction sites to confirm the structure is erected in accordance with our designs.
LISTED BUILDINGS
A number of our clients ask us to carry out sensitive alterations to listed buildings. It is not always possible to apply modern standards to historical structures.
Instead, we aim to design alterations which are sympathetic with the existing fabric and we have found over the years that buildings respond well to this approach.
In most cases, it is possible to design alterations which are fully reversible and in our experience this approach is welcome by English Heritage.
TEMPORARY WORKS
We undertake the design of temporary works for contractors. Being based in central London we respond quickly and efficiently assisting our clients maintaining their programme.
We provide temporary works design for a variety of schemes including lateral shoring to basement excavations; temporary propping to allow the removal of a load-bearing wall; jacking of loads onto permanent beams to reduce the risk of movement and cracking in existing structures.
We engineer practical solutions using economical materials; in most cases we are able to generate savings to our clients and assist improving the duration of structural works on site.
We explore sequences of construction via sketches which we pass onto contractors assisting them understanding the key stages and planning of the works.
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS’ REPORTS
A number of our clients acquire buildings to change their usage and want to know the potential an existing structure has to be further developed. Because of our knowledge of existing buildings we are able to provide very useful initial information on buildings based on their age and type of construction.
We also provide other type of reports such as expert reports for legal cases; reports on structural defects identified by pre-purchase surveys and building surveyors which often require the specification for repairs and remedial works; appraisal of the condition of existing buildings to allow negotiations to take place between a buyer and a vendor.
The most common type of defects we are asked to consider are leaning or bowing walls; subsidence; cracking; corrosion of steel structures and general deterioration. It is the nature of existing buildings that they develop defects which need our attention in order to extend their life expectancy.
CHECKING ENGINEERING
With building refurbishment work becoming ever more popular than selling and buying a larger home, it is inevitable that adjoining owners or landlords seek an independent opinion from another engineer before agreeing to building works which have the potential to affect their properties.
This independent engineer is known in the industry as a checking engineer. We offer checking engineering services to adjoining owners advising their party wall surveyors when for example basement work or complex alterations are proposed.
We also advise managing agents; landlords and solicitors by providing an independent assessment when leaseholders apply for a License to Alter.
