This sounds like some kind of pickup basketball tournament. If I were picking odds on who would win, I’d go with the engineers — they are more likely to take high-percentage shots and play solid defense.  Most people’s questions about architects and engineers,...

Here in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, Areté Engineers’ structural assessments of homes start at about $850, and go up to about $2000, depending on the size, complexity, age, and distance of the property from Blowing Rock.  Areté Engineering performs only complete...

When you walk across a bridge, do you worry about it falling down? Whenever you ride an elevator in a skyscraper, do you hold your breath as you watch the floor numbers light up, hoping you make it all the way to the top? After you leave your car in a parking...

Commercial construction projects are all around us. From roads, bridges, and tunnels to parking structures, hospitals, and shopping centers, commercial construction is an industry that affects everyone on a daily basis.  If there’s one thing a commercial...

Why would you want to bother hiring a structural engineer to look at a property before you buy it? Isn’t that what the home inspector’s report is for?  We looked at the foundation of a $600,000 second home here in Blowing Rock and found that approximately one...

This sounds like some kind of pickup basketball tournament, but it’s probably not going to be as popular as March madness! The question people ask about architect vs. engineer vs. contractor is whether you need one or the other, or two, or all three. In terms of...

This reminds me of a story G. K. Chesterton told of two men having a conversation. The first man said, “It’s raining.” The second replied, “What’s raining?” There ensued a violent conversation ending in a wonderful friendship.  So the question is, “How much does...

In Great Britain, a building engineer fulfills the roles we give to architectural engineers here in the U.S. The Chartered Association of Building Engineers, or CABE, is a British organization to unify the profession there. They have their own website: Chartered...

Building inspectors generally will look at most properties that are being bought or sold to give the buyer peace of mind and the seller some freedom from liability if there are problems discovered with the home soon after the sale. But building inspector’s reports...

Bridges should last at least 100 years if they are well designed and maintained. The materials used to construct modern bridges far exceed the quality of materials from even 40 years ago. Many of the newer bridges have precast components which are created in a...

In short, structural engineers are needed whenever there is a problem to be solved, or a problem to be unraveled, with respect to a structure. Of course, municipalities and large institutions hire both architects and structural engineers when they are building...

Home inspectors generally will look at most properties that are being bought or sold to give the buyer peace of mind and the seller some freedom from liability if there are problems discovered with the home soon after the sale. But home inspector’s reports read like...

Structure and Infrastructure Engineering could be better expressed in English as “Structural and Infrastructural Engineering.” The former is a title of a journal which seems to have been published overseas, but translated (roughly!) into English. “Structural...

Value is the ratio of function to cost. (V = F/C)  Of course, this is not a strictly numerical ratio, because cost can be defined in currency, but function is not objectively defined in dollars and cents. It can be easily seen that value is increased by...

The multibillionaire inventor of the "Airblade" hand dryer, and a revolutionary vacuum cleaner and hair dryer, James Dyson, commenting on the theme of the importance of structural engineering in building design, said that his first inspiration about engineering and...

A structural analysis engineer is the person you will need to design a structure which must maintain loads exerted by its own weight, natural forces such as winds and earthquakes, and the loads or weights and movements of its occupants, such as people and their...

The purpose of this article is to educate you on the difference between a building surveyor and a structural engineer. Let’s begin with the history of surveying.  In the United States, a building surveyor is a person who does land surveying, or cartography. They used...

Cracks in walls are a common occurrence in residential homes. We understand they can be worrisome for you, especially after making such a significant investment. If you've heard stories concerning the pricey costs involved with foundation repairs, you're not alone,...