Structural engineer's fees

Joined
2 Apr 2008
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Location
Hampshire
Country
United Kingdom
Hi all,

I employed the services of a structural engineer to design a support for one wall in my cellar conversion. His design was a concrete "mass" in a window "bay" (no window in it as it's underground) tied to a reinforced concrete "beam" at the base of the wall to be supported. Beam was to be 300x300mm cross section. Here's a sketch I did:

Their minimum fee was about £280+VAT, which he said should be more than enough to cover what I wanted. We did not ever have a written contract. I got the drawings and paid the bill.

When I came to construct it, it turned out the "beam" would have to be 450mm high (won't go into the reasons). I asked the engineer
1) Whether this was OK
2) Whether it could be shallower, given the extra height.

He sent me a new set of drawings (which were incorrect in several ways), did not answer either question, and billed me £164.

I expressed dissatisfaction in the bill and the lack of answers, and after a phone call I got the answers I wanted. (Yes, taller is OK. Beam can be reduced to 250mm deep.) No corrected drawings, but I didn't need them.

There is still the issue of the outstanding bill.

To be honest even before this I was horribly dissatisfied with their service - they repeatedly failed to do things when they said they would, the guy (the MD!) wouldn't answer questions (and in fact would just talk over them), he wouldn't listen to what I wanted (after explaining several times what I wanted I had to resort to sending the above picture as it was clear he just hadn't listened) and in the end I had to threaten to sack him to get any results at all.

What are your opinions, people? I'm tempted to refuse to pay it, or offer, say, £50 as full and final settlement on account of not wanting to pay for a load of incorrect, unnecessary work redoing the drawings.

Thanks,
Mark
 
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It sounds like this person wasn't over helpful, you didn't need the extra work or drawings.
I'd hold back payment, stating the additonal work was not asked for and unnecessary.
Even though, I do think the original bill was quite cheep.
 
I'm confused about the detailing here. When you say 'deep' Do you mean 'wide'?

*edit* OK sussed it. Seems a bit steep based on a recalc when the original element to be supported hasn't changed in any way?
 

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