Structural Inspections & Repair Design

Our Professional Engineers have completed hundreds of complex and demanding inspections and evaluations for structures from single-family residences to multifamily, commercial, institutional, and historic buildings; yielding vital information needed to plan for maintenance, repairs or improvements. You can expect your project to receive our uncommon proficiency and thoroughness, whether we are providing a focused inspection of a single feature, phased inspections across the life of a construction venture or structural design services for a renovation or addition.

Lockatong Engineering offers design and construction management services for both repairs and capital improvements. Repair Design Drawings & Specifications for Contractor Bid includes engineering design, detailed project specifications, contractor bid documents, and bid evaluation. Construction Monitoring & Management includes project management guidance and contractor monitoring during construction.

Single-Family Residence

Your home is one of your most valuable assets, and it is important to determine its structural integrity and its safety for your family.

Buying a home

When considering the purchase of a home, most buyers want to know of any issues with the house’s structure before they finalize their purchase and it’s too late to back out or negotiate on price. And most buyers rely on their real estate agent’s advice and recommendations of their home inspector.

If a home inspector observes conditions that are potential indicators of a structural issue, they normally recommend that a structural inspection be performed by a Professional Engineer who can evaluate the indicator and determine if it is a structurally significant issue.

Lockatong PEs are adept at evaluating buildings and determining the possible causes and severity of the structural issues we identify. We perform a visual inspection of the home before presenting our written observations, professional evaluation of the structural condition, and recommendations for repair. In short, we provide a wealth of information on which buyers can base their purchase decisions.

Existing Homes

Structural inspections can help homeowners determine what repairs or maintenance their home needs, now or down the road, so they can anticipate costs, prioritize projects, prepare a home for sale or plan renovations.

If you find any of these warning signs in your home, contact us. We’ll help you determine if you need a structural inspection to identify the underlying causes of what you’ve observed. An inspection now can save you money and major repairs if the issues are allowed to continue.

Cracks in the foundation
Leaning or bowing foundation walls
Cracks in wood framing in your basement or attic
Sloping floors
Water intrusion
Deflected wood framing members
Cracks in the drywall ceiling or walls
Insect damage to wood structural components
Concerns about a porch, deck or roof

Lockatong Engineers can also assist a homeowner to plan renovations. If a homeowner wants to remove or relocate walls, columns or other structural elements of the home, we can evaluate the structure and determine the structural load-bearing elements. We can also provide engineering design and drawings for planned structural modifications.

Multifamily Residential & Condominium Associations

Building inspection legislation in New Jersey and across our region has been growing more stringent. In essence, New Jersey bill S2760/A4384: Structural Building Inspections & Reserve Studies requires that multifamily and condominium residences adhere to a schedule of comprehensive structural building evaluations. These in turn provide information about anticipated repairs and capital projects to fulfill the requirements of the reserve study portion of the bill. Lockatong’s robust PE staff is fully qualified to unravel the complexities of the bill’s language and to carry out the steps called for in the legislation.

Lockatong’s Structural Professional Engineers are qualified to conduct a structural building evaluation for a multifamily building in accordance with New Jersey legislation. Our inspection follows the standards of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and includes the following:

A visual inspection, to the extent reasonably possible, of the building structure that affects the safety of the building and/or that supports any dead or designed live load. It includes steel, concrete or wood-framed members, including columns, beams and rafters.
Masonry and concrete bearing walls for random cracking or definitive patterns of cracking, as well as bulging, sagging and other signs of misalignment
Steel members for corrosion
Wood members for rot, water damage, cracks, and deflection
Balconies and decks for structural condition, water intrusion, waterproofing, and flashing at building joints
We also review any available structural drawings of the building and documentation of prior completed structural repairs.

We prepare a complete narrative report of our observations, findings, and recommendations and provide a photolog of any deficiencies we observed.

If an association has a specific suspected structural issue, Lockatong can inspect and evaluate that condition. This could be cracking of concrete or masonry, corrosion of steel, deflection of beams or water intrusion issues.

After completing the structural inspection evaluation, we continue to have our clients’ backs. When we uncover an issue that must be addressed, Lockatong’s PEs can provide these services:

repair design specifications and drawings,
documents for soliciting contractor bids with oversight of the process and
construction monitoring and management throughout the project,
along with a host of other engineering services, as needed.

Click here for our Structural Building Requirements for New Jersey bill S2760/A4384 handout
Repair Design Drawings & Specifications for Contractor Bid
Construction Monitoring & Management

Commercial and Institutional Buildings

Lockatong brings to its inspections of commercial and institutional buildings—such as retail space, warehouses, and healthcare facilities—the same care and expertise that we devote to single-family and multifamily residential structures. Our approach takes into consideration the difference in both scale and the applicable rules and regulations that govern such uses and components. For example, commercial and institutional buildings require an inspection when a specific structural issue is suspected or known, when building modifications are proposed and if adding new equipment necessitates structural building modifications to accommodate it.

For a specific example: solar panels. As these become more commonplace on commercial and residential roofs, a vital structural inspection can initially determine if the roof structure and framing can withstand the additional load of the solar photovoltaic panels. Our structural engineer looks at the current condition of the roof and reviews the original roof specifications and plans, if they are available. Here in the Northeast, our load-bearing calculations take into account the weight of snowfall, wind pressure on the panels and their mounting system, as well as the expansion and contraction of materials caused by fluctuating temperatures across the seasons.

When our inspection and evaluation are complete, we provide a detailed report of conditions and recommendations. If we uncover an issue that must be addressed, Lockatong’s PEs can provide

repair design specifications and drawings,
documents for soliciting contractor bids with oversight of the process and
construction monitoring and management throughout the project,
along with a host of other engineering services, as needed.

Historic Buildings

Historic structures, whether residential, commercial or institutional, present owners with unique issues in regard to keeping them safe and maintaining their value—in addition to those they share with newer construction. Evaluating these buildings requires the expertise of a Professional Engineer who recognizes and understands the special challenges of older structures and knows how to “read” their distinctive characteristics that may hold significant historic value. Lockatong structural engineers are especially skilled in determining structural deficiencies in buildings with older stone or brick foundations and old-timber framing and will prepare repair designs that are sensitive to potential historic importance.