Saving Calculations

[msquared48]

How long do you save your calculations?

What are the legal requirements in your state to do so?

[flush]

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[JedClampett]

While it's a nuisance and an expense that you don't get reimbursed for, we keep design notes (calculations) forever. We deal with municipal clients in a limited area (water and wastewater plants), so there's a chance we'll be either asked a question on a design or be asked to modify an existing facility. Having the calculations are good business.
They're also a good reference for replicate type work.

 

[Robbiee]

What a business we are in! Anybody recommends this to his kids?

 

[BAretired]

Ailmar,

Not really, but my kid became a structural engineer anyway. But it looks like my grandkids will have more sense.

BA

 

[kslee1000]

What career choice you have in mind for your grand - An architect (knows how to slave the old generations with non-stoppable creative thinkings), or a lawer

 

[BAretired]

My granddaughter has completed her bar exams and one year of articling in a law office. She will be accepted by the bar in about one month.

It is a little early to tell about my two grandsons, but it appears that engineering is not in their sights at the moment.

BA

 

[kslee1000]

congrats your granddaughter's acievement, you and your son are well protected

 

[BAretired]

Yes and I may be needing that protection very soon.

BA

 

[kslee1000]

Hope she's not joining the other side (easier for her team to win

 

[BAretired]

She wouldn't dare!

BA

 

[Ron]

Mike,
As RonRoberts noted, it is the statute of repose that usually gets us. In Florida, the statute of repose was recently changed from 15 years to 10 years, which seems to be fairly common.

The difference in a statute of limitations and a statute of repose is generally the discovery of a defect. For a statute of limitations, you generally have some time period to bring action after the discovery of the defect (design flaw, construction flaw, etc.), often 4 or 5 years. The statute of repose generally runs from the date of issuance of the design or the date of acceptance of the construction. It is generally the encompassing statute, meaning that if you found a defect in the 8th year after design, you do not necessarily have the full statute of limitation time period to bring action...just until the statute of repose expires.

To answer your original question, we are required by our engineering law to keep all signed/sealed documents for a period of 3 years after issuance. I keep them for the entire statute of repose period.

Ron