[Cob] Engineering, $$$, etc

[ocean]

An engineer is a professional with a government-issued license.  The 
license can be suspended for faulty engineering, etc.  This is why most 
engineers stay far away from cob and other alternative methods.  An 
engineer would never sign a waiver - after all, you are asking for them 
to certify with your local government that the building is safe and 
sound.  Then how, at the same time, could you ask them to sign an 
agreement that says "the building might fall down, but it's not my 
fault"?

I think the $10,000 figure is probably accurate, give that an engineer 
will have to do a lot of research, beyond the standard process of 
looking up engineering numbers for conventional structures.  There's 
really no way around this issue:  if you're going to try to build under 
the scrutiny of your local building department, then it's going to cost 
a lot of money.  That's why Ianto Evans strongly recommends building 
small (under 200 square feet), having good relations with your 
neighbors (so they don't rat you out) and pretty much crossing your 
fingers that you would be discovered.  This is probably also why, 
despite many years of discussion about getting engineering for cob, I 
have still never heard of a single code-approved cob structure in the 
United States.

On Dec 19, 2006, at 8:03 AM, Owen Morgan - cobbuildersforum.com wrote:

> I think that is what my friend was trying to say really that he would 
> be legally responsible if something failed or did not pass correctly 
> for whatever reason. I would imagine if we signed an agreement 
> absolving them of responsability then would that cause the engineer an 
> issue?
>
> Thanks,
> Owen Morgan - http://www.cobbuildersforum.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Amanda Peck [mailto:ap615 at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:24:03 -0600
> Subject: RE: [Cob] Permitting
>
> How much is an engineer considered at fault if a building with his (or 
> her)
> seal fails?
>
> If not much--or at all--then it shouldn't cost much, engineer can say, 
> "oh,
> I can just use so-and-so's figures for strength and so on, and not 
> worry if
> the builders are going to cut corners and make a hash of it."
>
> If the engineer--or the people granting the permits--can be sued
> big-time....
> .................
> Owen wrote:
>
> I had an interesting discussion with a person I've known for a few 
> years but
> only just realized they were an Engineer. My county building 
> inspectors said
> that it would not be a problem for me to build a structure such as
> straw-bale/cob as long as I had an Engineer's seal. However, my friend 
> is
> telling me that it can cost upwards of $10,000. Does anyone have any
> experiance with this our any helpful information?
>