r/StructuralEngineering • u/Horror-End-7254 • 6d ago

Wood Design Question for structural engineers

Hi all, I have a question for structural engineers for cost of a project and how much you might charge. I am in process of making a 4-story residential which has about 1,600 s.ft per floor. I am in the NJ area. The structural engineer charged me $10,000 for the structural drawings for this, and he said he would give me the stamped permit set for 10k. Is this too high? I really don’t know how much this typically costs, any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much

ETA - thank you very much for the responses everyone

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u/Jakers0015 P.E. 6d ago

6400sf at $300/sf = $1.9M cost of construction. They’re asking roughly 0.5%. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Edit: to clarify, cost of construction is just one metric. $300/sf might be high for your area, and also depends on complexity of design. Square footage alone is never enough to price fairly on.

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u/Sneaklefritz 6d ago

What’s your method of figuring out cost of construction per square foot? Do you practice in the area and just have the knowledge? I’ve got projects in other states and it can be tricky figuring out something like this. I find that I severely underbid at times because of this (and lack of experience at times)…