Hi all - Im designing my home in the santa cruz mountains (northern california) and am looking to get an idea of what engineering costs will be..Im planning on doing the design and the drawings. I'll then need to get them in front of a structural engineer. I understand that all projects vary but Im just looking at a rough idea. like are we talking 10k or are we talking 50k.. even better, maybe you guys can share what you've payed for engineering.
my project is on a terraced hillside and will span 2 levels and Im siesmic 4 - Im looking for the same engineer to do both the home and the foundation.

Thanks for looking and thanks for having me!
This is a great resource!

Andy

Figure on $ 1.50 to $ 2.00 sq.ft. roughly depending on your drawings and the complexity of the house. Let me know if you need referrals for an engineer.


Chris

I just had an all ICF home engineered for a Berkeley, CA hills location for $10,500. That was for the foundation, walls, and what gave the engineer the most trouble was the SIP roof. It was a difficult home, two storey in the middle with a single storey surrounding it on all sides, partial basement, multiple levels on the first floor and a second storey ICF wall that spans across the two car garage with an integral concrete moment frame. Size of the house will be 3600 sq.ft. Picked up my building permit on Tue., Tearing down the existing house next Mon. I'm setting up a website now that will show the plans and the progress soon.

Good Luck,
I spent 18 months designing my house and getting County approval after I fired my Architect, another 8 months after my design was approved while I changed my drawings to ICF because thats when I found out about them, 4 more months working with my Engineer, then Contra Costa County just took 4 months to do plan check.

I know that alot of wasted time was because of my inexperience and I had to learn everything for myself, but everytime I hired someone to do some of the work it seemed to cost too much for too little.