Residential Structural Evaluations

Pricing

Site Visit: $425, including a sealed engineering letter. Our licensed field inspector visits, documents the concern with measurements, photos and readings, and goes over what he finds with you on site. Our Professional Engineer then issues a 1–2 page signed and sealed letter within 24 hours of the visit. The letter covers:

• the conditions observed
• the engineer’s opinion of the likely cause
• his conclusions
• the recommended next steps

Full Engineering Report: +$375 (optional). A complete structural evaluation report, signed and sealed, delivered within 2 business days. It covers:

• an executive summary
• the property’s history and any prior repairs we can identify
• detailed observations and measurements, such as a floor-level survey and moisture readings
• the probable causes
• prioritized repair recommendations, with the order of work and planning-level cost ranges
• a full photo appendix

You can add it when you book or after you receive your letter, and no second visit is needed.

Travel: included within 35 miles of Providence Forge; beyond that, your exact total is shown before you book. Available for homes in Virginia.

Re-inspection after repairs: $250.

Nothing is charged when you book. The visit fee, which includes your letter, is charged the evening of your visit. A full report is charged when it’s delivered. Pay by card or bank account, or by cash or check at the visit.

Letter or full report?

	Sealed Engineering Letter (included, $425 visit)	Full Engineering Report (+$375)
Length	1–2 pages	A complete report with a photo appendix
What you get	Conditions observed, likely cause, conclusions, next steps	Everything in the letter, plus history, detailed measurements, causes, prioritized repairs, order of work, cost ranges, photos
Usually enough when…	You have one specific concern and need a P.E.’s opinion in writing: to start an insurance claim (for example, storm or tree damage), to answer a home inspector’s “have an engineer look at it,” or to know whether a crack is serious	There’s more than one problem or the causes are connected, you need a repair plan contractors can bid against, or the findings will carry weight in a price or repair negotiation, a disputed or larger insurance claim, or a legal dispute
Sealed by a P.E.	Yes	Yes

Not sure? Start with the visit. The letter tells you what’s going on, and you can order the full report afterward from the link in your letter’s email.

Have a repair quote? Get it checked first

A foundation or crawlspace contractor’s inspection is free because it ends in a quote. Ours costs $425 because it doesn’t. We have nothing to sell you but the answer.

Send us the proposals you’ve received when you book. With the full engineering report, we go through each one line by line against what we measured at your home and tell you three things: which items your home needs, which it doesn’t, and what the quote left out.

A recent example. A homeowner sent us three contractor proposals for the same crawlspace. One, a $9,844 quote, included $6,550 of work our evaluation did not find structurally necessary: support jacks, sandbags and treatment of the whole crawlspace. The same quote left out repairs the house did need, including the compressed pier shims that had thrown the main girders out of level, and it proposed a girder repair that would not have fixed the problem at that support. A second contractor had found “no structural defect” and proposed moisture work only. Our report separated the repairs that were required from the ones that were optional and the ones that weren’t needed.

We don’t recommend contractors and have no business relationship with any of them.

Already had a repair, and the problem is back?

Cracks that reopen, floors that keep sloping, doors that stick again a year after the work was done. Many of our evaluations are for homes that have already been repaired once.

We look at what was installed and whether it is doing its job: whether new supports are bearing on the framing, whether they sit on footings, and whether the repair addressed the cause or only the symptom. Your sealed letter says what we found. The full report gives you a scope you can take back to the original contractor or to a new one.

Common Questions

Home inspection or structural evaluation? Buying or selling and want the whole home inspected? That’s Brentwood Inspect, our home inspection company, with same-day reports. Have a specific structural concern that needs an engineer’s answer? That’s us.

Who comes to the visit? Harrison Schwartz, our Virginia-licensed field inspector. Jeremy Schwartz, P.E., reviews his data and signs and seals your letter, and your full report if you order one.

Do I need the full report? Often not. The sealed letter included with every visit gives you a Professional Engineer’s opinion, conclusions and next steps in writing, and many clients only need that. Order the full report when you need a detailed, prioritized repair plan with cost ranges that contractors can bid against. It’s also the right choice when several conditions are involved, or when the findings will be relied on in a negotiation, a disputed or larger insurance claim, or a legal dispute. If you only need conditions documented without an engineer’s opinion, a Brentwood Inspect Limited Foundation Inspection costs less and comes with a same-day report.

Can I order the full report later? Yes. Your letter’s email has a link to order it. We write it from the same visit, so there’s no second trip, and it’s charged when it’s delivered.

Do you do repairs? No. We’re independent engineers, so we have no stake in what you fix or who fixes it. If repairs are needed, the full report gives your contractor a prioritized scope of work to bid on.

What if repairs are made later? We can come back and re-inspect the corrected items for $250.

Can you review a contractor’s repair quote? Yes. Send the proposals when you book and order the full engineering report. It compares each quote against what we found and tells you which items are needed.

How fast will I hear back? Your sealed letter arrives within 24 hours of the visit. A full report follows within 2 business days. Up against a real estate deadline? Rush delivery is available: tell us your deadline when you book.