How it works
How a Sealed Engineering Certification Works
Most people buying engineering work for the first time have no idea what they are buying. This page explains exactly what happens at this firm, in order, and why it works that way.
Before we open a service line
The engineer writes it down first
Nothing gets offered here until the engineer of record writes a protocol for it and signs it.
That document is not marketing. It sets the questions we ask at intake, the evidence a technician must collect on site, the photographs each item requires, and the criteria the engineer applies when he decides. It names what we will not do and when we decline.
When he signs it and approves it here, the line opens. Until then, we do not sell it.
Most firms do not work this way. An engineer looks at a roof, forms a view, writes a letter. That can be perfectly good work. It is also unrepeatable, hard to audit, and impossible to hand to a technician.
Why that matters to you
Three things fall out of it
All three are about what you can rely on afterwards, which is the only thing a certification is for.
Your job is judged against criteria written in advance
Not against how the engineer felt that afternoon. The thresholds existed before your file did, and they are the same for the job before yours and the one after it.
The evidence is complete or the job does not move
The technician cannot submit a partial package. If something could not be observed, he records what and why, rather than leaving it blank and letting the reader assume it was fine.
Somebody is accountable, by name, in a record that cannot be altered
A licensed professional engineer is in responsible charge of your job, and every determination he makes is written to a log that is append only. That is your protection as much as ours.
The five steps
What happens, in order
The same five on every service line. A line opens once the engineer of record has approved its written protocol, and the firm quotes work and takes enquiries on every line today.
- 1
You tell us what the letter is for
Not what you think we need to hear. The actual purpose, and who it is going to, because that decides what the letter must say.
What you do
Tell us the address, what the document is for, and who is going to read it. A carrier, a lender, a title company and a building official all want different things, and a letter written for the wrong one of them is a letter you pay for twice. If there is a prior engineer's report, an insurer's letter, or a plan reviewer's rejection behind the request, send it. Five minutes, on the phone or online.
What we do
We ask the set of questions the engineer of record wrote for that service line, and collect what he requires before anybody drives anywhere. Those questions are not a form somebody in marketing designed. They are part of the protocol he signed, and they are the same every time.
- 2
We tell you yes or no, before you pay
Some jobs this firm cannot take, and you find that out in the first conversation rather than after you have paid and waited.
What you do
Answer three questions honestly: whether there is an open insurance claim, whether there is active litigation, and whether another engineer has already looked and reached a conclusion you did not want. None of them is disqualifying on its own. All of them change what the work is, and hiding one wastes your time rather than ours.
What we do
We decline the work we should not take, and we say why. An open claim turns a certification into leverage in somebody else's dispute, which is a different service with different rules. A covering type outside the engineer's competence is a no whatever the fee is. If we take it, you get a fixed price and a date before anything is scheduled.
- 3
A certified technician works the engineer's checklist
Not a general inspection. A specific list of items, each one photographed, with a ruler in frame where a measurement governs.
What you do
Give us access, and tell us anything that will make the visit shorter: where the attic hatch is, which slope is the one you are worried about, whether a dog lives there. If somebody needs to be present, say so when we schedule rather than on the day.
What we do
The technician is certified on that protocol before a first assignment on that line, and works the engineer's checklist rather than his own judgement. The app will not let him submit the job incomplete: an item he could not observe is recorded as not observed, with the reason, rather than left blank. Photographs carry their own timestamp and location.
- 4
The engineer reviews the evidence against his own written criteria
He records one of five determinations, and he records which items and which photographs he relied on.
What you do
Nothing, and that is the point of this step. If the package is not good enough it comes back to us rather than to you, and you are not charged for our re-inspection.
What we do
The engineer of record reads the file against the criteria he wrote before your job existed. It passes, the package needs more, repairs are required, a return visit is needed, or we decline. Every determination is written to a log that cannot be altered afterwards, which is your protection as much as ours.
- 5
You get the sealed document
Signed and sealed by the engineer in responsible charge, addressed to the recipient you named, for the purpose you named.
What you do
Send it on. If repairs were required, have your contractor do them and tell us when they are finished. We come back, verify each item individually, and issue the letter. You pay for the return visit rather than for a second full inspection.
What we do
The document goes out signed and sealed by the engineer in responsible charge, and the whole file stays: the answers, the photographs, the checklist, the determination and who made it. Years later, somebody asking what was observed on that date has an answer rather than a memory.
The deliverable
What our letter says, and what it does not
We tell you this up front because carriers and lenders sometimes want things an engineer cannot honestly give.
A certification letter states the property, the date of inspection, the covering type or the structural element in question, how the evidence was collected and reviewed, and the observed condition on that date.
- It does not estimate how many years are left.
- It does not forecast future performance.
- It does not guarantee the roof will not leak, or the slab will not move.
It is a professional opinion about observed condition, and an engineer who tells you otherwise is telling you something he cannot stand behind. If your carrier requires a remaining life figure, call before you order and you will get an honest answer on whether we can help.
What it costs
The price is published before you call
Fixed, before you pay. If something changes the scope we tell you before we do it, not after.
- Residential and Light Commercial Design
- $225 per hour, with a fixed fee quoted from the engineer's estimate before work starts. Minimum engagement $2,000.
Start a job
Tell us what the letter is for
Five minutes on the phone, and you will know whether this is work this firm should take before you pay anything.