Structural Engineers in Montreal

Most of the cracks we assess need no structural repair at all. A vertical crack that is thin and stable, with both sides still in the same plane, is almost always drying shrinkage: concrete contracts as it cures, then stops. What matters isn't the width, it's the pattern and whether it keeps moving.

Three patterns change the diagnosis. A horizontal crack halfway up a foundation wall points to lateral pressure: saturated backfill, frozen soil, sometimes a surcharge at the surface. A stair-step crack follows the mortar joints and signals differential settlement, meaning one part of the building is sinking faster than the rest. And if you run your finger across the crack and one side sticks out further than the other, it isn't just a crack anymore: it's an out-of-plane offset, and that one needs to be looked at right away.

What you can do before calling anyone: draw a pencil line across the crack, measure the gap, and write the date right on the concrete. Measure again after a full winter and a full summer. A crack that hasn't moved in twelve months is a dead crack. You've just saved yourself an assessment, and we'd rather tell you so.

Montreal's geology explains the rest. The Champlain Sea clays that dominate east of Mount Royal swell and shrink with their moisture content. A dry summer, a mature tree six metres from the wall, a downspout emptying at the foot of the foundation: those are the three causes we see most often. None of them is fixed by repairing the crack.

Yes. As soon as a structural element is modified, the plans must be signed and sealed by an engineer who is a member of the OIQ, and the City requires them when you file the permit application. The value-of-work threshold was removed from the Engineers Act. It is the nature of the work that triggers the obligation, not its cost.

Even before you call, three clues tell you a wall is probably load-bearing: it runs perpendicular to the joists, it sits on top of a wall on the floor below, and there's a beam or a column under it in the basement. In Montreal's pre-war plexes, the central hallway wall is almost always load-bearing.

What the engineer calculates isn't just the beam. They establish the tributary width, add up the dead loads and the live loads prescribed by the Code, check deflection as well as strength, then follow the load all the way down to the ground: beam, columns, footings. That last leg is the one rushed projects forget, and it's the most expensive one to fix after the fact.

A contractor, even one with an RBQ licence, cannot seal structural plans. It's a reserved act. Penalties under the Engineers Act reach $62,500 for an individual and $125,000 for a corporation, on top of municipal fines for work done without a permit.

The site visit and measurements usually take a day or less. The time needed for calculations and sealed plans depends on the scope and is stated in the service proposal. Permit processing then depends on the borough and on how complete the file is.

What those working days cover: measuring the wall's dimensions and actual makeup, load assumptions, sizing, deflection checks, drafting, review, then sealing. The drawing is only the last step, and by far the shortest.

What changes the timeline is rarely the calculation. It's the lack of original plans. Reconstructing the structure of a 1925 plex takes longer than sizing the beam that will replace it.

The longest stretch is never the engineering, it's the wait at the city. Files that slip by a month are almost always files that were submitted incomplete: an outdated certificate of location, a missing building information sheet, no detailed contractor quote. We go over the checklist with you before you file.

We can't give a price before we've seen the wall, and that isn't a sales tactic. Four variables decide the size of the job: the span, the number of floors carried above the opening, the type of wall, and the condition of the foundation under the new support points. Together they can make the work vary threefold.

Span doesn't work in a straight line, and few people know it. Doubling the opening doesn't double the beam: the bending moment grows with the square of the span, and deflection faster still. Going from three to six metres doesn't change the size of the solution, it changes its category. You move from glulam to steel, and the installation changes with it.

The item everyone forgets. The wall you're removing spread its load along its entire length. The beam that replaces it concentrates that load on two points. Those two points have to be carried down to a footing that can take them, and in a house from the sixties, that footing was never designed for it. It's a separate line item, rarely priced in the first quotes, and the most common reason a budget gets out of hand mid-project.

The question to ask about every quote you get: is underpinning included, and on what basis? Two prices that are far apart almost never describe the same work.

The price follows the deliverable, not the crack. A verbal opinion, an engineer's letter, a full report and an assessment for a legal file don't take the same time on site, the same analysis or the same level of professional liability. The same crack can therefore be billed four different ways.

What really changes from one line to the next isn't the length of the document, it's the depth of the verification. A letter commits our signature to a finding. A legal assessment commits our signature before a court, with a methodology we must be able to defend under cross-examination.

Most homeowners who call us need the third line, not the fourth. We tell them so.

Because it isn't the same act or the same responsibility. A pre-purchase inspection is visual and non-intrusive: it observes. The engineer calculates, takes on professional liability and signs a document that can be relied on against third parties. The price gap reflects that gap in commitment, and the deliverables simply aren't comparable.

What you're paying for, in concrete terms: professional liability insurance, the obligation to keep the file, a professional order that can discipline its members, and a document that carries weight with a city, an insurer or a court. A building inspector's report opens none of those doors.

The inspector is the general practitioner; the engineer is the specialist you get referred to. Something few people know: the title of building inspector is not yet reserved in Quebec. RBQ certification, framed by the BNQ 3009-500 standard, only becomes mandatory on October 1, 2027.

An inspector for the general condition of the building before you buy. An engineer as soon as a structural element is in question or a sealed document is required. In practice one leads to the other: an inspector who flags a crack, an out-of-level floor or a bulging wall is doing exactly the right job by referring you.

For a routine residential purchase with no structural warning signs, the inspector is enough and an engineer would be money wasted. We say so on the phone regularly, and it's often not the answer people expected.

We become necessary in four cases: a structural issue flagged in the inspection report, a renovation project that affects the structure, a dispute, or a requirement from the city, the condo association or the lender.

A reminder that saves disappointment: a pre-purchase inspection does not guarantee the absence of defects. A latent defect is, by definition, what a visual examination could not see.

Two documents: a maintenance log and a contingency fund study, to be obtained no later than August 15, 2028. The government refers to a deadline of “three years and one day” from August 14, 2025. Both must then be reviewed at least every five years, over a projection horizon of at least twenty-five years.

The calendar trap. The law has been in force since August 14, 2025. The syndicate's certificate on the condition of the co-ownership, which must be provided within fifteen days of a request, already applies. It's the document a notary asks for at every sale. Only the log and the study benefit from the deadline running to 2028.

There is one exception, for the log only: a review every ten years if the condominium has no more than eight private portions, or no more than three storeys fully above ground, or no common portions inside a building. The fund study, on the other hand, must be reviewed every five years without exception.

Who can produce them: an engineer, architect, professional technologist or chartered appraiser for the log; those four plus a chartered professional accountant (CPA) for the study. In every case, the professional must be independent of the syndicate. A board of directors that waits until 2028 to get started will find that good maintenance logs require surveys, and surveys take time.