CONSTRUCTION AND TECHNICAL EXPERT ASSESSMENT
A construction and technical expert assessment is carried out to establish the suitability of buildings and facilities for ongoing safe operation, or where construction and repair works are needed — for the buildings and facilities as a whole or for individual parts. It typically involves a single technical activity, for example: review of the available design, construction and operational documentation; partial structural and/or architectural surveying; opening-up works (exposures) and trial pits for inspecting installations, structures and the subsoil; selective laboratory and field testing of structures and installations; sampling of the materials used; visual inspection and photography; preparation of a defect and damage inventory; mapping of cracks; and similar.
An expert assessment is typically required in the following cases:
- Doubts about the competence, completeness, quality or economic feasibility of a design solution;
- Disputes between parties during construction regarding a design solution or construction technology;
- Disputes over the quantities and/or quality of the materials used;
- Defects and damages manifested during the operation of the buildings and facilities (settlement, cracks, local failures, flooding, roof leaks, wetting of walls and floors, non-working installations, poor appearance, etc.);
- Failure or incipient-failure (pre-collapse) conditions of structures;
- The need for technical competence in the purchase and sale of individual homes, buildings and land;
Our services include:
- Expert evaluation of the design documentation of buildings and facilities;
- Expert evaluation of design documentation for strengthening and/or reinforcement of buildings and facilities;
- Expert evaluation of design documentation for roads, airfields and pavements;
- Expert evaluation of design documentation for water and hydraulic engineering facilities;
- Expert evaluation of the design documentation for geotechnical design works (special foundations, ground improvement (earthworks) design, subsoil improvement, excavation shoring, dewatering, slope stabilisation, stabilisation of landslides and rockfalls, surface drainage measures, erosion and abrasion control measures, avalanche protection measures);
- Expert evaluation of building and facility survey documentation;
- Expert evaluation of documentation for engineering-geological and geotechnical investigations;
- Optimisation of others' design solutions, studies or surveys;
- Evaluation of design and estimate documentation;
- Preparation of Design Brief for the buildings and facilities;
- Preparation of the Terms of Reference (programme) for engineering-geological investigations;
- Preparation of the Terms of Reference (programme) for the survey of buildings and facilities;
- Preparation of expert structural opinions confirming that building renovations do not affect the load-bearing structure;
- Advice on the purchase and sale of individual homes, buildings and land;
- Consultations related to the quality of construction and/or defects and failures that have occurred during the operation of the buildings and facilities;
- Preparation of Technical Specifications for tendering for design, construction or construction supervision;
- Technical "due diligence" in the acquisition of projects, buildings and facilities.