Structural Consulting Fee's
Structural Consulting Fee's
(OP)
I am wondering what you all typically charge for structural engineering design fee's for general building design and construction (primarily east coast, mid-Atlantic region)?
When quoting a project for a client do you typically use a percentage of the construction cost for the structural engineering services? Does this fee include all phases of design and CA tasks (reviewing shop drawings, RFI's and site visits)? If not, what extra do you typically charge?
Finally, when you break down time allocation for different tasks within a project, what percentage of man hours do you allocate to different tasks (engineering, drafting, admin/clerical)? I've typically heard 40 man hours per full size sheet, and 1/3 of hours goes to drafting and admin while the other 2/3 is engineering time.
Thanks for any and all input.
When quoting a project for a client do you typically use a percentage of the construction cost for the structural engineering services? Does this fee include all phases of design and CA tasks (reviewing shop drawings, RFI's and site visits)? If not, what extra do you typically charge?
Finally, when you break down time allocation for different tasks within a project, what percentage of man hours do you allocate to different tasks (engineering, drafting, admin/clerical)? I've typically heard 40 man hours per full size sheet, and 1/3 of hours goes to drafting and admin while the other 2/3 is engineering time.
Thanks for any and all input.






RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
I typically do all jobs hourly and charge $160 for design, drafting, site visits and correspondence. I do not charge for admin.
I am located in central NC.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Here is why. On a relatively simple, new building project, the structural engineering fee will probably be between 1/2% and 1% of the construction cost. However, on a remodeling project, I have seen a structural engineering fee as high as 20% of the construction cost. A lot depends on the services you offer during the construction phase as well.
And I have found number of sheets of drawings doesn't always correlate to fee either.
DaveAtkins
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Hey Excel - cheers from the mountains! We lived in Greensboro for a while, about 10 years ago, and have been over here since.
Please remember: we're not all guys!
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
FYI, some engineers frown upon providing proposals to clients. However, if you are just starting out I don't know how else get into the business.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
"We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." -WSC
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
A: be offended
B: refuse to do work with the client
I don't think these people work in our segment of the industry though.
On small emergency projects, I will sometimes not provide a written proposal to the client to expedite the work.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Why would any engineer not want to do a proposal?
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
I am not sure, either. Qualification-based selection, unethical to compete based upon fees, other? No idea.
Interested in the rationale.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
We recently did a rebuild of a building that the center burnt down... Spent as much time dealing with design as we did with Insurance consulting and even more time measuring in the field. This means the cost was really high per sheet. I think in hindsight our total fee was 13k per sheet.
CA we bill as cost plus with an estimate of time based on engineering fee and construction. Typically if Engr fee was too low for great drawings and coordination time then CA increases.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Brand name architects in LA I am presently working with seem to spend on a lobby renovation about 150hr/sheet.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
That's generally how residential goes. No contractor wants to pay what the time is actually worse. We do all of our residential work at an hourly rate up to a maximum. The maximum is based on our estimation of how long it will actually take.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
For example - that tall wall you posted about a little while back, Medeek, I would have charged something in the order of $700.
The key is dynamic pricing! It is easy to charge $750 for work on a 2M house for the same design you would charge 350 for on a 500k house.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
EIT
www.HowToEngineer.com
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
When I lived in Seattle, there were "special" rates for engineering the homes of Microsoft Millionaires.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
I'm not sure if that's:
A Freudian Slip
Trying to make your point
A $300 design result
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Where in NC Mountains are you?
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Please remember: we're not all guys!
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
I'm in Chapel Hill.
Got a Father-in-Law in Cashiers and a Brother-in-Law in Highlands who are in real estate. Maybe you have done work for them? They say they have to go to Asheville to get an Engineer.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
Please remember: we're not all guys!
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
BTW I can’t see any merit in a fee of services per sheet of paper.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's
However, at the residential rates I am finding it hard to make at living at this. I now get it why a lot of engineers don't mess with the low hanging fruit, lets face it time is money and you only have so much time.
The only way to make it work in my opinion is to make oneself uber efficient at handling these jobs. Everything, as much as possible, needs to be automated or canned. I find that one cannot justify writing out 20 pages of hand calcs and commentary/notes when it might take up to 2 days for a job that is only worth $300.
RE: Structural Consulting Fee's