After a disaster – Fire, Flood, or Earthquake – at your place of business or home you should contact an engineer
to ensure the safety of your structure. The first responders have completed their job protecting your people from harm and have done their best to protect your business. You notify your insurance company and they will schedule their investigation, which usually includes sending a PE to assess conditions and prepare a report. What is the next step?
After the first responders leave and insurance is notified, call Risha Engineering because you want to get back to business and we can help.
Usually, based on a quick visual assessment, we can advise you on the structural safety of re-occupying the building or portions of the building or entering the building to retrieve valuable materials. If structural instability poses an unacceptable risk, we can provide recommendations on how to expeditiously stabilize the structure. We can also help you retain a contractor with the capability to install shoring NOW.
A critical part of our initial reconnaissance is to obtain physical and photographic evidence and documentation for future use.
Immediately following these initial steps aimed at keeping your business going, we can begin the more detailed evaluation needed to prepare repair construction documents. We will meet with you to determine your needs. We will meet with the governing jurisdiction to understand their requirements for your building and explain your needs and goals.
Concurrent with the repair program, we can help with the insurance company. We can review the insurance company’s engineering report and evaluate if the report is fair and accurate. If we disagree with their conclusions, we can provide a report with our findings supported by the line of reasoning we used to reach our conclusions. The documentation we obtained on your behalf during the initial investigation may be critical at this point.
We will help you protect your interests.
Why Risha Engineering?
With Risha Engineering, you always get a licensed structural engineer for your project. For the same reasons outlined above, you should call Risha Engineering to evaluate any structural situation or condition that arises in your building or site structure, including:
- Structural damage, or suspected structural damage.
- Corrosion, rot, or deterioration in structural members or fasteners.
- Excessive defection of the floor or roof.
- Sudden unexpected displacement of structural or non-structural building components.
- Vehicle damage to your building.
- Significant earthquake, with or without clear evidence of damage.
