Structural Engineering for Florida Permits

What we engineer

• Foundations — slabs, footings, thickened edges, stem walls, piers and the reinforcement schedules that go with them.
• Framing — wood, light gauge steel, masonry and structural steel; roof and floor framing, headers, beams and columns.
• Wind design — pressures derived for the site’s design wind speed and exposure, with uplift and lateral resistance detailed through the structure.
• Connection details — the straps, anchors, hold-downs and fastening schedules that make the load path real rather than notional.
• Repairs and modifications — wall removals, header replacements, truss and rafter repair, foundation repair, corrosion and spalling remediation.
• Existing structure evaluation — assessment of what is there before deciding what can be done to it.

Load path is what gets checked

In Florida the question a structural reviewer is really asking is whether uplift and lateral load have a continuous, detailed path from the roof to the foundation. Not whether the members are big enough — whether the connections between them are drawn.

That is why sets get returned. The beam sizes are fine and the strap schedule is missing, or the detail exists but does not match the framing plan.

Removing a wall is rarely simple

The most common residential structural request we get is a wall removal for an open-plan kitchen. Sometimes it is trivial. Sometimes the wall is carrying a truss bearing and the fix involves a substantial beam, new bearing points and a foundation modification underneath them.

We work out which it is before you have committed to a design or a price, and we tell you the honest version.

Repair work and insurance

Structural repair sets are frequently tied to an insurance claim or a damage assessment, and the documentation has to serve both the building department and the carrier. Those are different audiences with different expectations, and a letter written for one does not always satisfy the other. See engineer letters.