Permit and Engineering Support for Restoration Companies

Where restoration work meets the building department

• Emergency and temporary repairs — tarping, board-up, stabilisation and shoring, and knowing which jurisdictions require a permit for it and which do not.
• Structural assessment — after fire, water, wind or impact, an engineer has to establish what is sound and what is not before anyone can price a rebuild.
• Reconstruction permits — the actual repair work, which usually needs drawings the original building never had.
• Engineer letters for carriers — causation, extent of damage, repairability, and whether a repair is genuinely feasible or a replacement is required.
• Mould and environmental — assessment and remediation permitting, and asbestos survey requirements that catch people out on pre-1980 buildings.
• Substantial improvement determinations — in flood zones, whether the repair crosses the FEMA 50 percent threshold changes the entire job.
• Closing it out — permits finalled and closed so the property is clean when the owner sells.

Two audiences, one set of facts

Restoration is the one trade where nearly every document has to work for two readers. The building department wants code compliance. The carrier wants causation, scope and cost justification. A structural letter written for a plans examiner frequently says nothing a claims adjuster needs.

We write for whoever has to accept it, and where both need to be satisfied we say so up front rather than producing something that half-serves each.

Speed, honestly described

We answer 7 days, day or night, because restoration does not observe business hours. Assessment and emergency filings move as fast as anything we do.

What we will not do is tell you a building department will move fast because your job is urgent. Some jurisdictions have emergency provisions and we will use them where they exist. Where they do not, you will hear that from us on day one rather than discovering it on day ten.

The 50 percent rule question

In a flood zone, whether repairs exceed 50 percent of the structure’s market value determines whether you are doing a repair or a substantial improvement that must bring the whole building to current standards — including elevation. That single determination can multiply a job.

It is worth resolving early, with documentation, rather than arguing it with a floodplain administrator after the estimate has gone to the carrier. How the rule works →

Insurance disputes

When a carrier disputes causation or scope, an independent sealed engineering opinion is often what moves it. We will give you our honest assessment of the damage — which is exactly what makes the letter worth having. We do not write conclusions to order, and we do not adjust claims or act as public adjusters.