ᐅ Structural Engineering Quote for Single-Family Home: €13,000 – Is the Price and Scope Reasonable?

Hello everyone,

Despite the uncertain situation, I would like to start planning our plot and apply for a building permit/planning permission. We are planning a row house (ground floor + 1 upper floor + attic), and an existing building will be demolished. Our single-family house is designed without a basement. The adjacent row-house neighbor also has no basement. The other neighbor, about 1.5 m (5 feet) away, has a basement.

We are still unsure about the construction method. Currently, we are considering the options of individual contracting with masonry work or turnkey construction using solid building methods. We want to keep it somewhat open for now and obtain offers and comparisons after getting the building permit/planning permission. The architect (commissioned according to HOAI) can be hired step-by-step according to the work phases.

Now the architect sent me an offer for the structural engineering, and I’m not sure if we need all of it or if the price is reasonable. What do you think about the offer and the scope? Perhaps we should also commission it step-by-step at first?

Regards,
Martin

This seems quite expensive to me for such a small amount of structural analysis. In a terraced house, you usually don’t have large spans anyway. I can recommend the demo version of the Harz structural engineering software—I used it to calculate my structural design.

If you want my opinion: I paid 1400 net for my 200-page structural engineering plan. It was for a two-family house with X dormers, a double garage, and so on. I can gladly put you in touch with the engineer; a structural engineer doesn’t need to be on site for the calculations. Mine was really good—during construction (in EL), he even advised me free of charge by phone 5 or 6 times for follow-up questions! The structural calculations were finished and delivered by mail after about 10 days.

Even if it costs 2000 net, this is absolute rip-off. I guess the architect is getting a commission. His offer reads like a lawyer’s damage report 😀

I’m not quite sure what exactly he is doing. As I see it, I have an offer that goes beyond the permit phase. But why? I actually only need the structural engineer for the building permit / planning permission, right? Or what exactly is he supposed to do in work stage 5? Isn’t that usually handled by the contractor? If I were to commission only work stages 1 to 3, it would be around €7,400.

fyaylmf schrieb:

I’m not quite sure what all they’re doing. As far as I see, I have an offer that goes beyond the permit phase. But why? I actually only need the structural engineer for the building permit, right? Or what exactly is planned for phase 5? Isn’t that usually done by the contractor? If I were to commission only phases 1–3, it would cost me around €7,400.

What does very affordable mean?
20 hours of engineering planning at €70/hour.
These are standard market rates.
The structural engineer was involved before the building application for sizing steel, concrete, roof truss, etc.
I know many who built their own homes and skipped the structural engineer, which I strongly advise against.

Just send me your email briefly, and I’ll share the company details. It consists of three independent structural engineers and architects.
You can remove your email again within 10 minutes by editing the post.

So 12k just for the structural engineering of a terraced house is quite high. I would get quotes elsewhere myself. For me, it was only a third (net) of the asked amount, but that included structural engineering, thermal insulation, and the energy efficiency application, for a detached single-family house, single-story without a basement.