Get an engineer's read before you hire a Michigan foundation contractor

The problem with a free diagnosis

Foundation work has a structure that few other home trades share. The company that comes out to look at your wall is usually the company that will quote the repair. That is not a scandal. It is how a salesperson’s visit is paid for. But it means the person telling you what is wrong has a stake in the answer, and the answer you hear tends to match the product on the truck.

An engineer who sells no repairs has no such stake. Their report names the problem, says what evidence supports that, and says what a fix has to accomplish. It does not say which brand of pier to buy. That separation is the whole idea behind this site’s approach: independent diagnosis first, then a company to do the work.

FoundationMatch is a referral service paid by the foundation companies that receive requests. We are not independent of them. The engineer is, which is exactly why we send you to one before we send you to anyone else.

What the law says about who may be an engineer

Michigan defines the practice of professional engineering broadly. MCL 339.2001 covers professional services such as consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design or review of work in construction, alteration or repair of a structure or building, when the service requires the application of engineering principles or data. Only a licensed professional engineer may practice, and a person who is not licensed as an architect, professional engineer or surveyor and practices anyway is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $5,000 to $25,000 or up to 93 days for a first offense (MCL 339.601). Our reading is that someone selling a structural report under the title “engineer” needs that license.

The license has real requirements. Under MCL 339.2004, a professional engineer needs 8 years of professional experience, including no more than 5 years of education, a baccalaureate engineering degree from an accredited program or the equivalent, passing the fundamentals and professional practice exams, and good moral character.

Licensed engineers carry a seal. Under MCL 339.2007, a licensee applies seal and signature to a plan, specification, plat or report that the licensee issues and files with a public authority. That matters for you if a city building department wants a report: a sealed report is the form it will accept.

What Michigan does not require

Other pages often get this wrong. MCL 339.2012 says a person not licensed under the engineering article may plan, design or direct construction of a detached one- or two-family residence not exceeding 3,500 square feet of calculated floor area, and calculated floor area excludes basements and crawl spaces. So there is no statewide rule that a foundation repair on an ordinary house must carry an engineer’s stamp.

That is not the end of the matter, for two reasons. First, the building code can push you there. The 2015 International Residential Code, the base of the Michigan Residential Code now in force (see which Michigan code applies), requires concrete or masonry foundation walls to be designed by accepted engineering practice where they are subject to hydrostatic pressure from ground water or support more than 48 inches of unbalanced backfill without permanent lateral support. A wall that is bowing inward under soil or water pressure is exactly the case an engineer exists for.

Second, your city may ask. We could not verify whether any of the ten cities we researched asks for engineered drawings on a foundation repair. Dearborn’s renovation sheet says stamped architectural drawings are required only for homes larger than 3,500 square feet, which matches the state exemption. Call your building department before you assume either way.

Who to hire, and how to check

Look for a licensed professional engineer whose business is evaluation and report writing. Before you book, ask three things: if the firm or any relative or partner sells, installs or refers foundation repairs; if the engineer will visit in person, not review photographs; and the written fee for the visit and report.

Then check the license. The LARA State License Search lists professional engineers. LARA’s Bureau of Professional Licensing says it oversees about 20,274 of them. Save a screenshot of the record with the date.

Be careful with “in-house engineer” claims from repair companies. MCL 339.2010 lets a firm offer engineering only if at least two-thirds of its principals are licensees and a person in responsible charge works at each Michigan place of business. Some companies meet that. A report from the firm that will do the repair still comes from the party selling the repair. It may be accurate. It is not independent.

We found no source stating whether Michigan licenses home inspectors, so we make no claim either way. A general home inspector is a different service from a structural engineer, and a foundation question that comes out of an inspection is a reason to book the engineer.

What a useful report contains

You are paying for a document you will hand to strangers. Ask that it include:

1. The date, the address and what the engineer observed, with photographs and measurements.
2. The probable cause or causes, and what evidence supports each.
3. Whether the condition is active. A single visit cannot show movement, so the report should say whether a monitoring period is advised and how to measure it.
4. A scope of repair written as performance, not as a product: what must be supported, drained, braced or restored.
5. Whether a permit is likely needed and whether the engineer will provide sealed drawings if the city asks.
6. The engineer’s license number and seal.

If the report says the problem is drainage and grading, a good outcome of the visit may be that you do not need a foundation contractor at all. University of Minnesota Extension, an out-of-state land-grant source, ranks grading, gutters and downspouts first for wet basements, and says they may solve the problem. Our wet basement fix order covers that sequence.

Using the report when contractors arrive

Give every bidder the same document and ask for a written scope and price against it. Treat a bid that proposes something different as a reason to ask why, not as a reason to dismiss it. Ask each company to name the craft on its LARA license that covers the work. Michigan law requires a contractor charging $600 or more to hold a residential builder or maintenance and alteration license, and the contract for a residential structure should state the license number. LARA also lists what a contract should include: the company’s name and phone, detailed specifications and any architect or engineer drawings required, start and completion dates, a statement that the contractor will obtain the required building permits, a warranty statement, and a right-to-cancel clause.

If a salesperson comes to your door or you sign at home after a solicited visit, Michigan’s home solicitation law gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel. It does not apply when you call the contractor yourself, which is our reading of the statute’s definition.

Keep the report. If you sell, the Seller Disclosure form asks about settling, flooding, drainage, structural or grading problems and about structural repairs made without necessary permits or licensed contractors. A sealed report and the permit record are the answer to that line.

What it costs, and what we cannot tell you

We have no Michigan price for an engineer’s report. Our foundation inspection page shows an estimate for an inspection, $320 to $685 per inspection, a model built from published national ranges and not a quote, and a report on a structural problem may fall outside it. The wage evidence is what workers are paid: the Michigan statewide median for civil engineers is $92,100 a year in federal data republished by O*NET OnLine, which is pay, not a fee. Our cost by repair type tool shows estimates for each repair. Whatever the figure, a written fee quote before the visit is the right standard.

Next steps

Start with the do I need an engineer tool if you are unsure, read foundation inspection for what a visit covers, then use the crack types guide to prepare your photographs and log.