Engineering Services Bid: Fisher, Collins & Carter

In my post detailing the bid for my ECP/SDP (engineering/site plans), I mentioned a bid for $2300 for “Other Construction Services.” These are the engineering services required during construction to ensure that everything is being done as indicated in our ECP/SDP plans.

While I could use any engineering firm to handle these services, there are obviously some advantages to use the firm that did the surveying and the site plans; plus, I’ve been very happy working with Fisher, Collins & Carter on the site plans, so they’re my first choice. But, I did want to sit down with one of the engineers who would be handling these things, walk through the process and cost and make sure that we’re all on the same page, so there are no hold-ups once construction starts.

I sat down with the engineering this morning, and here’s how the bid for the engineering services breaks down:

• Home Stakeout ($650): At the start of the project (after demoing the existing house and before starting the excavation for the new house), the surveyors will come out and do some final surveying/measurements of the lot, which they’ll use for determining the exact location of the foundation, the stormwater facility and the driveway. They place stakes in the ground to allow both them and the contractors to reference locations throughout the project to ensure everything is built in the correct place. Because we are literally building on the setback lines (the minimum distance the county requires from the edge of the lot), we can’t afford to be off by even a couple inches on these things.
• Pin Footings ($400): The foundation company will use the stakes (and a drawing provided by the engineers called a “cut sheet”) to determine exactly where to place the footers (the concrete around the base of the foundation walls that runs around the entire property). Once the excavation is done, the forms for the footers have been installed and the concrete footers have been poured, the surveyors will come back and mark the exact location for the walls to be built on top of the footers. Again, because we’re building right on the setback lines, we can’t afford to be off by even a couple inches, so having the surveyors involved every step of the way is tremendously important.
• Foundation Location ($300): Once the foundation walls have been poured, we’re going to want to ensure one final time that they are in the proper location. This is also something required by the county before they will pass the framing inspection. The surveyors will come out and verify that the foundation sits where it’s supposed to and will provide official documentation to this effect.
• Final Location Survey ($300): At the end of the project, in order to get the final “Certificate of Occupancy,” the engineering company will send out the surveyors again to do a final verification of several things, including the foundation location, the grading and the stormwater management system. This is for the piece related to the location of the foundation.
• Grade Certification ($300): The environmental/site plans (ECP/SDP) that we submitted to the county and had approved indicate exactly how the lot is to be graded to ensure that water runoff is consistent with local regulations (don’t want water running onto a neighbors property or into a body of water that can’t handle). To comply with regulations, we need to ensure that the grading that is done is within a few inches of what we planned everywhere on the property, which isn’t an easy task. Once this work is done, the surveyors will come back and certify that the grading was done as planned, which will allow us to get our “Certification of Occupancy.”
• Stormwater Management Certification ($350): Finally, at the end of the project, the engineering firm will verify that we installed the stormwater management facility (the bio-retention pond) as indicated on our environmental plan that was approved by the county.

The total for all this work is $2,300, and I’ll discuss each part in more detail as we are working through construction…