Architectural Designs

Dose anyone have any idea of rough estimate fees from engineers in Southern California?

I'm planning to design & build a log cabin in Southern California; with residential characteristics in the project; wondering if anyone with first hand expirience knows of engineer fees: such as fees from Electrical, Plumbing, & Stuctural Engineers; in as far as plan reviews/drawings/cunsulting fees/paper work: I will be drawing the plans myself; they need to cordinate w/ my plans (I'm an architectural draftsman; using CAD) & I will cordinate w/my logging company's log plans; wanting to leave the architect out of my venture. Plans: 1600-2010 square feet; two story, 2 ded, 2 bath. My request based on design aspects of the engineers; not the building/construction portion: aiming to shoot for a custom log home that needs to go thru the/my City/County. Any advice, tips, or shortcuts anyone can give me I would really appriciate it. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. You're looking for a structural with seismic experience, even I would call the building department and ask them what they will require from you for a building permit - do you need stamped plans, calculations and plans, a letter, or is there a prescriptive approach you can use to demonstrate equivalence and compliance. You'd also like to know their interpretation of the seismic zone (this will be UBC and out of date, but zone zero is good news, zone four is bad news), snow load (if applicable) and frost depth, and wind speed. This will save the engineer some work and as you're intending to act as architect you can help out as much as you can. I personally detest "the other guy does the drafting" projects because you really haven't any control over the quality of the drawings because you're not drawing them, so at the end of the project you've worked all these situations out and they're not drawn right, so what do you do? Well, you refuse to stamp the plans until they're to your satisfaction. you can always ask the structural engineer for their preference. In terms of structural parlance, you're looking for a structural engineer with experience in heavy timber (or timber) construction. Does the company you're working with have anyone they have used in the past? I don't know why plumbing, electrical would be different from a normal house. Any book on house planning should be able to give you estimates for this work, and they are typically done to NEC and the plumbing code, require licensed contractors for the work and that's about it, besides showing where the sinks, toilets, and electrical outlets are on the drawings, the wiring and connectors is left to the electrician / plumber. Don't skimp on them. They're worth it if you don't want overflowing toilets and electrical fires. I'm not going to say those are engineers, they are more typically tradesman when dealing with a house - but get licensed guys who went through trade school. Structurally, the cost might be, might be, something like 1-5%of the cost of the project. The architectural fees you're avoiding can be benchmarked around 3-8% of a project, with the engineer's fee "inside" that. In the interest of full disclosure, you might want to find a structural engineer who is also an architect (there are some, they're rare), or tell the engineer you need them to act as prime/lead because there will be no architect. (you only need them to act as prime for the drawing phase, it sounds like you have a contractor lined up for construction, this isn't as bad as it sounds, I'm thinking a sheet of details from the engineer and the rest - electrical, architectural, plumbing - you draw, they just show the details and size the timbers as needed, maybe one or two stamped drawings). You can try looking around the american wood council, or the american institute of timber construction, or the american forest & plywood association (AFPA, I'm not solid on the words). For references. There is a timber construction standard that recently came out, unfortunately I don't remember who published it. (meaning - you might be able to do a prescriptive structure and bypass the engineer too, as long as things are built within the permitted limitations of that standard, if your building department will accept it). My understanding from a 'large wood' home contractor is he's pretty displeased with the inconsistency of plans between engineers and at the time was looking for someone to give more of a business commitment to one engineer so all the drawings and means of construction/attachment were relatively consistent, and I don't know how that worked out for him. (I pointed, I don't have liability insurance for that and won't take on outside work without it, maybe in a few years I'll try it out on my own, but the prediction is that housing in 2008 is going to be the worst year since 1985 - you might find some really hungry contractors eager to build for a competitive price - just remember you'll need to provide supervision and be actively involved in the construction). The guy I talked to did sandwich panel houses with timber frames, not the same as what you're trying to get, but if you're desperate, I'd suggest calling the contractors and asking them who they've worked with - their biggest annoyance is the guy to talk to and give consideration to what they say.