We suffered a burst pipe in the condo building recently and while removing the damaged drywall our contractor discovered that a previous "renovation" effected by parties unknown had compromised a support wall. Now of course there will be a fight between the Condo Association and the unit owner over who is going to pay for the repairs. As the unit owner is denying that there is even a problem to begin with the Condo board will bring in a qualified structural engineer to assess the situation. We also know that the same type of "renovation" has been done in a few other units so we would like the engineer to look at all units that have been altered since the builing was built. My question is roughly what will it cost us to have a 42 year old, wood frame, 3 story, 27 unit building inspected by a qualified structural engineer? We will be looking at alterations done to interior walls (that turned out to be load bearing) to determine if the alterations compromised the load bearing ability.
I'll explain exactly what was done in the unit where we have the wall open right now. The wall had 3 heavy 2"x6" beams making up the top which ran across the entire unit supported by the usual 2"x4"s. This wall divided the kitchen from the living room. To obtain a more modern "open" concept the owner wanted a window or opening in this wall. this should not be a problem if he had left that top beam untouched and provided more than just single 2 x 4s for support at each side of the opening. Or so my contractor tells me. However the open concept was not enough for this particular owner, he wanted recessed lights in the top of his new "window". No room for them with those pesky thick 2 x 6 planks in the way. So he cut those out above his window! 
No he did not provide any additional support to replace those beams. In fact the 2x4s he did put in to frame out his window are not even under the beam they are simply nailed to the end of it. Needless to say we now know why the floor in the unit above has an interesting dip in it. By the way this wall is on ground floor! There are two upper stories resting on this now. People should leave DIY projects to single family detached dwellings. Now all the owners in the condo association are going to bear the cost of this stupidy. I'm no engineer or even carpenter, but even I knew this was wrong as soon as I saw it. I'm not an electricien either so i wont go into the details of how he wired his recessed lights.
Estimate of Fees for Structural Inspection
Re: Estimate of fees
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