SEG Consulting Inc.

SEG Consulting Inc. We offer structural engineering services for houses, low-rise commercial, and industrial buildings in the Lower Mainland.

We take on new construction projects, renovations, and remediation.

The principal thing that the BC engineering regulatory body (EGBC) drills into each engineer is to protect health, safet...
07/25/2024

The principal thing that the BC engineering regulatory body (EGBC) drills into each engineer is to protect health, safety, and the environment. What that looks like is different for each engineering field, but it is always there.

I visited a job site today for a single family house and noticed a new soil stockpile right at the edge of the excavation and the excavator was parked right on top. It didn't look right to me, so I sent the photographs to the geotechnical engineer. As it turns out, it was not safe. The geotechnical engineer quickly contacted the excavation subcontractor to get it resolved quickly.

Just because something isn't an engineer's immediate job doesn't mean they shouldn't speak up.

This week was a tale of two soils. First, I reviewed an excavation in Kitsilano. The soil was dense sand and I could bar...
06/27/2024

This week was a tale of two soils. First, I reviewed an excavation in Kitsilano. The soil was dense sand and I could barely make an impression with my probe. Thousands of years of ice age glaciers made the finest soil a structural engineer could desire.

Then I reviewed another excavation for a house in Richmond. The soil there was very uneven; 3/4 of the soil was firm silt, but there were pockets of soft clay. This is not the worst soil in the Lower Mainland (that would be peat), but it can cause trouble. Soils with uneven strengths can cause differential settlement and depressions in floor slabs. Foundation repair are much more expensive than building conservatively. If in doubt, call a geotechnical engineer.

In high seismic regions there is an impossible trinity for house layout. A house can have of the following: wide windows...
06/19/2024

In high seismic regions there is an impossible trinity for house layout. A house can have of the following: wide windows, open floor plan, and low cost.

Most houses in British Columbia are wood-framed and resist earthquakes with wood shear walls, which are the easiest and cheapest option. The trade-off is shear walls cannot have openings like doors or windows.

So if you want an open floor plan and big windows, then your options are going to be expensive steel moment resisting frames or proprietary narrow prefabricated shear walls. It's important to make these trade-offs early and with clear eyes, otherwise you will face disappointment.

If you are building or renovating, another reason to hire design professionals and get permits is to protect yourself fr...
06/17/2024

If you are building or renovating, another reason to hire design professionals and get permits is to protect yourself from the contactor. The extra scrutiny will discourage a shady contractor from doing the cheapest and worst work. A shady contractor can fool a homeowner much easier than a professional engineer or architect.

If you are building your project yourself, city inspections and design professionals will save you from yourself.

06/13/2024

I recently did a condition assessment of an unpermitted solarium in a single family house. The solarium enclosed an existing small deck that was never meant to be a room. The build quality was very poor, with a leaking roof, deck screws used to fasten hangers, and shallow footings vulnerable to frost heaving. The poor owner will likely have to demolish it and start again. All his time and money spent building that solarium were wasted.

If you are thinking of renovating, always get a permit and hire professionals. Instead of viewing it as an unnecessary expense and waste of time, you should consider it an investment in quality. Architects know how to design building envelopes to ensure good energy performance. Structural engineers know how to frame your building to keep it safe and strong. The building inspector will see if the plumbing and wiring meet minimum standards.

If you are renovating, haste makes waste.

06/10/2024

New laws in BC are increasing housing density (and hopefully supply). As a result, I believe we are witnessing the end of the detached spec house in major Canadian cities. As the price of a newly built house climbs past $2 million, it will make more sense for developers to build duplexes and multiplexes.

Engineers working in residential construction will have to adapt. In many ways, duplexes are easier to design than single family homes; narrow units, rectangular floor plates, and a guaranteed central wall make framing layout easier. On the other hand, open floor plans create significant challenges for seismic design. For example, it is difficult to get enough shear walls in side-by-side duplex units with an open floor plan ground storey. Architects and engineers will have to work together to make multi-unit houses economical, seismically safe, and liveable.

Working in the construction industry is full of lessons. The other week one of my clients learned the value of trusting ...
05/30/2024

Working in the construction industry is full of lessons. The other week one of my clients learned the value of trusting a good contractor the expensive way.

The client is doing a complex renovation project involving raising a house. The client has a contractor who is a decent guy, but they went around the contractor when dealing with the house raising subcontractor. Allegedly without the contractor's involvement, the client didn't properly coordinate with the lifting subcontractor and made an expensive mistake. As a result, the basement was not fully excavated before the house was raised, meaning a lot of additional work was required to build the footings and floor slab. The cost was weeks of lost time and thousands of extra dollars in extra labour and professional fees.

A good contractor will have far more knowledge and experience than his client, so a wise client will exploit that. A good contractor will know how to juggle schedules and handle subcontractors and keep a big picture view of the project. If a client cannot trust their contractor, then they should replace him with someone they can trust.

05/23/2024

There's now a new way to get in touch with the Burnaby structural engineering professionals at SEG Consulting Inc.

Address

7426 16th Avenue
Burnaby, BC
V3N4A1

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+17789949807

Website

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