Cost
What a Structural Engineer Costs in Texas
Every line this firm offers carries a published fixed price. Here they are, what moves them, and why most firms will not give you a number before a visit.
The prices
Published, fixed, and agreed before work starts
These are the marketed prices. Card processing is the firm's cost rather than a line on your invoice, and there is no charge for the first conversation.
- 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.
A roof that cannot be safely walked and needs lift or drone access, a property outside the standard service area, or a return visit after repairs.
This is the completed construction price, $795. Ongoing construction, inspected in stages while the work is open, is $995 because it is more attendance rather than a premium on the same visit.
A structure over a certain size, a property outside the standard service area, or a second visit after remediation.
An array on more than one structure, or a roof whose framing cannot be established from what is supplied.
A multi section home, a property outside the standard service area, or a return visit after the anchoring is corrected.
A desktop review assumes usable drawings or photographs exist. A site visit, where one is needed to answer the question honestly, is quoted before it is scheduled.
A specification covering more than one structural element, or one that has to be coordinated with a third party engineer's design.
A fixed fee is quoted from the engineer's estimate of the hours before any work starts. The minimum engagement is $2,000.
Why this firm can publish one
The protocol comes before the price
Most firms cannot publish a price because every job is scoped by hand. The engineer decides what to look at when he arrives, so what the work costs is not known until it is nearly done.
Here the engineer of record writes the protocol before the line opens. It sets the questions asked at intake, the evidence the technician collects, and the criteria the engineer applies. That makes the work repeatable, and work that is repeatable can be priced.
It also means the price does not quietly depend on who turns up. The five steps are the same on every job, which is the thing the number is attached to.
Questions
What people ask about cost
- How much does a structural engineer cost in Texas?
- At this firm every service line has a published fixed price, listed on this page, and the price is agreed before any work starts. Across the market a residential structural inspection with a sealed letter typically runs from the high hundreds into the low thousands, and firms that will not quote before a visit are usually pricing the visit rather than the document.
- Why do some firms refuse to give a price?
- Because they are scoping every job by hand. That is a legitimate way to work and it is slower for you. This firm can publish a price because the engineer wrote the protocol first, so what a technician does on site and what the engineer reviews afterwards are the same on every job of that type.
- What makes the price go up?
- Access and scope. A roof that cannot be safely walked and needs lift or drone access, a property outside the standard service area, a structure over a certain size, or a return visit after repairs. Each of those is named against its service line above, and you are told the number before the job is taken rather than after.
- Is the inspection charged separately from the letter?
- No. The published price covers the field visit, the engineer's review and the sealed document, unless a line says otherwise. A return visit after repairs is charged, because it is another attendance, and it is charged as a return visit rather than as a second full inspection.
- Do you charge for the first conversation?
- No. The first conversation is where the firm decides whether it should take the work at all, and some jobs it declines. Charging for that would put a fee on finding out the answer is no.
Start a job
Tell us what the letter is for
You get the price and a straight answer on whether this is work the firm should take, before you pay anything.