An Engineering Consultancy experienced in a variety of Structural and Civil Engineering projects
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Astonishingly, I am blogging on two consecutive weekends! I must get a hobby. On 1 October 2023 The Building Regulations etc. (Amendments) (England) Regulations 2023 (“Regulations”) came into force. This, and any other legislation, is in the public domain at www.legislation.gov.uk. It’s been causing a bit of a kerfuffle in a certain authority’s Building […]
It is most gratifying when, after a lengthy period of silence, old contacts get in touch with enquiries for work. It is because those contacts know that I am of a certain vintage, one of the first questions asked, unsurprisingly, is whether I have given up the delights of structural engineering for a life of […]
It appears we are slowly emerging from quarantine into a new normal. Enquiries are tentative, but increasing, which is positive news. With the enquiries comes a request to visit site from time to time. I am reasonably relaxed about attending site. Buildings are sufficiently large for us to maintain our distance. There have been […]
Clearly the announcement from the government means that site visits are no longer a possibility and will not be until the situation is reviewed in three week’s time. If, however, there is something about your property that is causing some concern it is still possible to take a look via video calling. Not as good […]
As is mentioned elsewhere on this website, the Practice was started in 1993 by my Father when the recession at that time hit the construction industry hard. I joined him a year later and we worked in his basement. When he retired in 2003, I converted my garage into an office and when we refurbished […]
There is a thing in planning law called Permitted Development Rights (PDR). I am far from being an expert on such things, so I would recommend researching elsewhere on the internet if you are looking for detailed information on PDR. In layman’s terms, it seems to me that everything you do that changes the look […]
Firstly, definitions. There have been many discussions about the difference between settlement and subsidence. The best definition I have heard is that subsidence is when the ground shrinks away from the foundation, while settlement is when the foundation pushes the ground down. So, settlement is often a function of weakness somewhere, while subsidence is due […]
Although structural engineers are on the periphery of such things, I have noticed that larger buildings increasingly attract a request for a fire strategy from Building Control. Perhaps that should be a Fire Strategy. I suspect that Grenfell Tower has a great deal to do with this, but there is no proof. It occurs […]
I am rarely moved to post on Facebook or any other social media, but I cannot allow John Healey MP’s outrageous statement to pass without comment. Mr Healey is the Shadow Housing Minister and was being interviewed on Good Morning Britain about the proposal to retrofit sprinklers in all tower blocks following the Grenfell Tower […]
The process of buying a house is fraught anyway, but one of the things that sometimes pops up is the need for what others call a structural survey. The lender will send a valuation surveyor to determine whether the figures stack up for them. If they see something they don’t like – a crack, some […]