Survey Merchant provides structural engineers alongside its RICS surveying panel — covering the structural questions that property ownership, buying and building actually raise: Is this crack serious? Can this wall come out? What steel does building control need to see? Why is this floor moving? One instruction, a clear written answer, and calculations or reports the professionals downstream (building control, lenders, insurers, builders) will accept.
The work is organised into six services, instructed alone or together: structural engineer reports and inspections for specific defects and pre-purchase concerns; structural calculations for building control approval; load-bearing wall removal and beam design; structural design for extensions and loft conversions; subsidence and movement investigations; and structural crack assessment.
A Level 3 building survey tells you the condition of the whole building and flags structural concerns; a structural engineer then answers the specific question the survey raises — cause, severity, and the engineered fix. The two work in sequence, and because both sit on one panel, the handover is seamless: our surveyors' reports routinely recommend targeted engineer input, and our engineers see the survey before they inspect. The same applies in reverse for builders: an engineer's report or calculation pack is often the document building control or your buyer's surveyor is waiting for.
Structural engineering work is quoted fixed before instruction — a beam calculation is a defined product, and so is a defect inspection with report. Typical turnaround is 3–5 working days for calculations and 5–10 working days for inspection reports, faster where a purchase or building control deadline demands it. See our structural engineer cost guide for typical figures.
If a structural matter is already in dispute — a negligent design, defective works, a contested insurance claim — our expert witness team provides CPR Part 35 evidence instead.