Recommendations for Structural Engineer and Drainage Expert?
We recently moved into a new home and are looking for 1. a structural engineer who can give us an overall assessment of how our house is looking, as well as possibly draw up plans for retrofitting, and 2. a drainage expert who can help identify how to improve drainage in our yard. Any recommendations based on recent experiences would be appreciated, thank you!
Dec 17, 2018
Parent Replies
We worked with Dave Olnes for both; he's a civil and soil engineer with strong expertise in drainage. He is typically pretty backlogged, but if you can wait, I'd give him a try and see if you can address both with one consultation.
For a structural engineer I can recommend Dave Olness at 510-568-2162 and for the drainage systems I suggest you call Ward Construction at 510-215-3636. All Seasons Construction at 510-652-2221 and Carty Construction at 510-646-1364. Consider having all three drainage companies look at your project and give you a bid as there will be a slight difference in approach and solution to your problem as well as perhaps a larger difference in their bids. I have used all the above companies at different times to deal with drainage issues at various rental properties and they all do a fine job. I used Dave for each one, however, as his plans are simple and straightforward-not like a lot of other engineers who overbuild and therefore create a much more expensive project.
I have hired Dave Olness ( 510-568-2162 ) as a structural engineer twice to draw up plans for a foundation earthquake retrofit. I then hired Alameda Structural ( 510-523-1610 ) to undertake the projects. Both Dave and Alameda Structural did a very fine job and you will be very pleased with their work.
We used Bay Area Drainage (http://bayareadrainage.com) for multiple projects. They are experts!!! We had major drainage issues that they resolved successfully. Highly recommend them.
I just have Dave Olnes come to inspect my house and look in the crawl space. He isn't cheap, but the good news is everything looks great. Dave won't do the work, only recommends out... so it might be more cost effective to have a contractor come to give an estimate - that way you can save yourself the $600 dollars of an inspection.