Engineer visit - 5 minutes!

A

albob

Registered User
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Hi,
I had my engineer up to my house during the week. It is a housing developement. The house is roofed and waiting to be plastered inside. It was the first visit by the engineer and I expected him to go around checking everything (correct roofing materials, damp coursing etc). He spent 5 minutes in the house walking from room to room asking me what the room was? The only "technical" thing he did was he pointed the cavity insulation out to me and said "its insulated alright". I asked him about what other things he is checking and he said there wasnt much to check until house is finished. I wouldnt mind but he came recommnded! Or is that all the engineer will do? An extremely easy 175e if it is. I know he is expensive but I thought it might be worth it if he was recommended. What can I do? Just refuse to pay him? Am I expecting too much?
Alan
 
Talking to people, their engineer was checking everything as the house went up. For example one guys engineer spotted that the support brackets for the stairs were not of the correct strength and had to be changed. This can only be done prior to plastering/finishing. Is damp coursing put down? Radon protection? Correct floor depth? Dodgy workmanship in blocking etc. Are support lintels over windows etc of the correct spec etc etc. Im not an engineer so I can list them all, but everyone I talk to warned me about the need to get the engineer up during the build, and they all had stories of what engineers had found in the past. There is a lot of stuff that can only be checked as the house in built. My engineer didnt seem to soend any time looking at anything really. Now if this is the norm during a house build then fair enough. I dont know and hence the question.
 
hi kali's husband here-hanuman .
as a scaffolder i have spent many many hours on building sites , both housing developments and apartments , watching them grow as the work progressed. now i must say i find your engineers attitude , at the least very strange and the most unprofessional , very presumptious and down right rude. surely his intrest should be in the soundness of the internal structure of the of the house , that all the building materials are of the correct specification and that the workmanship is of a professional standard. What is he going to see once all the plaster work is done ? without a pair of x-ray specs not a lot .
Dont be afraid to have a good look around yourself and take lots of pictures , shoddy workmanship stands out a mile and if you feel there is anything to be concerned about you should try raising them with the architecht of the project .Hopefully they will be impartial and want the house to be built the way they designed it . hope this is of some help to you and remember dont let yourself be bullied by this engineer he is after all supposed to working for you and in your best intrests
 
Hi albob,

I AM an engineer and I can tell you straight, there's not much for us to be checking at the end of a job!!! Usually 5 visits are made to form an "opinion on compliance", which is the document he should furnish you with, with visits being made at foundation, ground floor, 1st floor, eaves level and roof level. After the roof is on, it's all cosmetic to us really!

Check if this guy is a member of The Institution of Engineers of Ireland. Anyone signing off on a house should be Chartered with the title "CEng" and "chartered engineer" after their name. If he's not, then whatever he gives you is not worth the paper it's written on.
 
Thanks for the replies OCD and Kali. A real eye opener for me. As the roof is on and external plastering is about to happen I have probably missed the boat on getting a proper engineers report on the house so. Guess I will just have to trust the builders so (they are a trust worthy lot aren't they? :eek: )
 
If the house is in a development it will normally be covered under the Homebond scheme. Why did you get another engineer to visit? Are you (and he) at cross purposes about inspections vs snagging perhaps?

Sarah

www.rea.ie
 
Perhaps. I asked him to call to the site to make sure eveything was ok. I said to him that I had heard stories about engineers finding different thing wrong during the build (damp proofing, stair brackets etc) and that seeing that I had not had an engineer up yet, I would let him to go up and check things out. Maybe I should have been more explicit in what i wanted (e.g. the "opinion of compliance" form that OCD mentioned. Not "experienced" in this game. I get the feeling at this stage that snagging is all I have left really (I had asked the same engineer previuosly to do the sangging when required). As you said, Homebond will cover me anyway if the whole thing falls down.
 
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