In our previous blogs we discussed the mandatory requirements of the City of Los Angeles’ Soft Story Retrofit Program, as well as the Tenant Habitability Program (“THP”), which requires the owner and/or landlord of a Soft Story building to mitigate the impact of retrofitting activities on the property’s tenants. In this new blog, we explain how the owner and/or landlord of a Soft Story building typically hires a structural engineer, as well as a soil engineer, to design the Soft Story project, and then hires a qualified construction firm to carry out the project!
How to find a good structural engineer
Are you interested in having a Soft Story retrofit on your commercial property? If so, then you should know that you must hire a licensed structural engineer to design such a retrofit project on your behalf. Structural engineers typically work at a structural engineering firm, or they may work in-house, at a specialty construction company which is experienced at seismically retrofitting Soft Story buildings. The Soft Story retrofit professionals at Weinstein Construction have many connections within the engineering industry and can either introduce you to a structural engineer, or they can design the engineering plans for your project using one of their licensed, highly-credentialed, and highly-experienced in-house structural engineers!
In case you are wondering whether it’s easy to hire a good structural engineer, the quick answer is, no, not really! It should be noted that hiring a qualified, experienced structural engineer is not always an easy task, as comparing cost proposals from various engineering firms can be confusing. Property owners and/or landlords must exercise caution when comparing one engineering proposal against another, as there are many factors that go into assessing the qualifications and experience of a structural engineer, and then many other considerations which either increase or decrease engineering costs!
Are all structural engineering proposals the same
At the outset, you need to know that accepting a “budget” or low-cost engineering proposal may not always be the best option, and not all engineering proposals are alike! For example, one engineering cost proposal may assume that you already have building drawings, and therefore that proposal reduces its cost accordingly. A second proposal may assume that drawings are not available, and therefore increase costs to allow for additional job site visits, taking measurements, and drafting new drawings. Similarly, one engineering cost proposal may take into consideration having only a single in-person engineer visit to the job site, and a second proposal may contemplate three or more such visits. Since each engineer’s visit to the job site typically costs hundreds of dollars, multiple visits can increase costs substantially!
What unfortunately complicates matters further, is that in the Greater Los Angeles region, we have come across a number of unscrupulous engineering firms who do not always have their clients’ best interests at heart. As such, we must advise property owners and/or landlords to proceed with caution when hiring outside engineers. Having said that, the good news is that the Soft Story professionals at Weinstein Construction are always on your side! If you hire us as your Soft Story contractors, we will always have your best interest at heart, will always work hard to advise you, and will go out of our way to help you hire the best structural engineers for your Soft Story project! Don’t get caught in a jam – come to Weinstein Construction for advice first!
How to find a licensed Soil Engineer
If you are wondering how to go about hiring a licensed soil engineer for your Soft Story retrofit project, you are asking the right questions! Property owners and/or landlords often find out that they need to hire a licensed soil engineer from a geo technical engineering firm if their Soft Story project involves a structure built on a hillside, or on top of unstable soil. The soil engineer will typically visit the job site and will bore into the ground to take soil samples, and then provide you with recommendations on how to remediate any issues that they find.
Don’t hire a soil engineer without first understanding what you are getting yourself into! The professionals at Weinstein Construction can typically advise you if you need to hire a soil engineer to conduct a geo technical survey of the soil under your Soft Story building, and we can refer you to experienced and licensed soil engineers that are qualified and experienced to undertake this work!
How to find a construction firm for a Soft Story Retrofit project
Are you interested in learning about how to go about hiring a construction firm for your Soft Story project? If so, you have come to the right place! After a structural engineer has completed the design of a Soft Story building’s retrofit plans, its property owner and/or landlord will need to hire an experienced, licensed contractor to provide a cost proposal for carrying out the retrofit work. Unfortunately, the process of picking a contractor is one that can prove to be difficult to manage! This is because there are many Los Angeles construction firms bidding on such projects, and many of them are unlicensed, or have minimal experience and qualifications to do this type of complicated work. Sadly, we have also seen how some unreliable construction firms “low-ball” their initial price, disregard major aspects of the work that should be taken into a cost account, and then later-on pile on charges for items that were not included in the original cost proposal!
So, this is another area where owners and/or landlords of Soft Story buildings must proceed with caution, and pick a reputable construction firm that is fully licensed, bonded, and insured, and that has already done many, many Soft Story projects. Happily, this is where the Soft Story specialists at Weinstein Construction can help! We are exceptionally qualified and experienced in Los Angeles Soft Story retrofits, having worked on hundreds of such projects! As part of the proposal costing process, we will visit your property, evaluate your engineering plans, and will work seamlessly with you and the project engineers to provide you with the highest possible level of service, at a reasonable price!
Our staff will also be pleased to assist you in submitting your plans to the City’s Building and Safety Department for review, and we can work with the project’s engineers to answer any questions or requests for plan modifications from the City’s Plan Checker. Once the City approves the plan, the Soft Story professionals at Weinstein Construction can collect the City’s permit on your behalf and begin the retrofit construction project! In our next blog entry, we’ll discuss how a construction firm such as Weinstein Construction actually carries out a Soft Story retrofit project!
Meanwhile, if you wish to discuss with one of Weinstein Construction’s Soft Story Retrofit Program professionals the process for hiring an engineer, or if you’d like for us to recommend one to you, please call us at (888) 412-8363. At this time, we can also schedule you for a free, no-obligation inspection and estimate to retrofit your Soft Story structure!
