Structural Engineers

Working with an engineer on a historic structure

Establish first whether movement is active. Most cracks in old buildings record settlement that finished generations ago. Monitoring over several months, or simply examining whether cracks are dirty, painted over or filled with old plaster, often shows the structure is stable and needs repair rather than underpinning.

Ask about minimum intervention. Traditional solutions – stitching cracked masonry with helical or stainless ties, lime grouting voids, splicing decayed timber, adding restraint straps – are usually cheaper, less damaging and more acceptable to conservation officers than removing fabric and inserting steel.

Check the engineer understands the material. Lime mortar, hand-made brick, rubble stone and green oak all behave differently from their modern equivalents, and design assumptions borrowed from new-build can be both over-conservative and wrong.

Where the building is listed, structural repairs that alter fabric need consent, and the engineer's report usually forms part of the justification. Involving them before the application, not after a refusal, saves a round of redesign.