No Perth engineering firm publishes a fee for a crack report, a beam or a patio certificate. Here's what drives the quote, the figures that are published, and the government charges that sit on top. Call now on (08) 5550 6237 to get a quote on your job.
Here's the honest answer first. We checked the Perth market and found no engineering firm that publishes a fee for an engineer's crack report, beam design for wall removal, a site-specific patio or shed certificate, extension or footing design, or an hourly rate. Engineers quote each job, and the price depends on the house, the structure and what the council needs. Anyone showing you a neat Perth price table for engineering is quoting estimates, not published fees.
What we can give you is the list of things that move a quote up or down, the Perth figures that do exist (mostly building-inspection products, labelled as such), and the permit fees and levies set by regulation. Kings Park Structural Co is advertising, not an engineering firm. We pass your enquiry to the independent structural engineering firm that advertises here, and it quotes you and contracts with you directly. Send photos or plans and the engineer who quotes your job can tell you what it needs, starting with structural inspections if a crack is what's keeping you up.
| Service | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Engineer's crack or structural report, Perth | Not published: quoted per job | No Perth engineering firm lists a fee. |
| Beam design, extension, footing design or site-specific patio certificate, Perth | Not published: quoted per job | No hourly rate published either. |
| Building inspection report, average Perth home | approx. $495 incl GST | One consultancy; a building-inspection product. |
| Pre-purchase building inspection report, average | $450 + GST (one firm); $495, GST not stated (another) | Building-inspection products, not engineering. |
| Pre-purchase inspection, starting prices | from $440 incl GST; from $550, GST not stated (with timber pest) | The $440 report is by building inspectors, not an engineer. |
| Standard certified patio drawings and wall details (not site-specific) | A$330 steel patio; A$275 per wall detail (GST not stated) | Council acceptance for your site not confirmed. |
| Builder's wall-removal assessment, two hours | $300, GST not stated | A builder's fee, credited to the next stage. |
| Building permit fee (Building Regulations 2012 Sch 2) | 0.19% certified / 0.32% uncertified, min $121.00 | Levies are extra; see below. |
These are published figures from the sources named above, not our quotes. Your price comes from the engineer's written quote.
The biggest factor is the question you're asking. "Is this crack serious?" is a different job from "design the beam so I can take this wall out", and both are different from "certify the patio so the council will issue a permit". A desktop review of photos and plans is a smaller job than a site visit, and a site visit with a written report is bigger again.
Then the house itself. Size matters, and so does construction: WA is the only state where more than half of detached houses are brick, at 68 per cent, and in a double-brick home some internal walls usually carry the ceiling or roof. The more elements the engineer has to check or design (one opening or three, one beam or a beam plus posts and pad footings), the more work there is.
Tell the engineer which of these applies when you ask for a quote. For the job-specific detail, see wall removal engineering, extension engineering and patio and shed certificates.
Most of the published Perth prices above are for building inspections, often pre-purchase reports to AS 4349.1. One Perth firm says its reports are prepared by building inspectors. That can be the right product when you're buying, but it isn't an engineer's report, and it isn't what a building surveyor wants for a new beam or an extension. Ask who signs the report before you book.
It's also worth asking whether you need an engineer at all. Some small work is exempt from a building permit in WA: a freestanding shed of no more than 10 m2 and 2.4 m high, or a pergola of up to 20 m2 and 2.4 m high, both outside wind regions C and D. A pergola in that rule has no roof, though, so a roofed patio doesn't count. Taking out a load-bearing wall, adding floor area or replacing footings is never exempt.
The standard certified patio drawings at A$330 are generic details, not designed for your block. We found nothing confirming that a council will accept a standard detail for a given site, so ask your council or building surveyor before relying on one.
Whatever the engineer charges, the permit fees and levies are set by regulation. These are the figures in the Building Regulations 2012 Sch 2 and the wa.gov.au table, and "value" means the estimated value of the work including GST.
Older council fee sheets still show a $110.00 minimum and a $20,000 CTF threshold. Both are out of date. On timing, the permit authority has 10 business days to decide a certified application and 25 for an uncertified one, and the clock stops if it asks for more information.
Because Perth firms don't publish fees, you'll see interstate numbers quoted on cost pages. Here they are, labelled for what they are. None of them is a Perth price, and we haven't blended them into one.
Use these as a sense of scale if you like, but get a Perth quote before you budget. If you're anywhere from Joondalup to Mandurah and Peel, call now on (08) 5550 6237 and send photos or plans.
No Perth engineering firm publishes a fee for a crack report, beam design, patio certificate, extension design or an hourly rate, so there's no honest single number. Engineers quote each job based on what you need answered, whether they visit, the size and construction of the house, and whether you need drawings and a certificate for the permit. Send photos or plans and the engineer who quotes your job can price it.
Not necessarily. Most published Perth prices around that level are building-inspection products, and one firm says its reports are prepared by building inspectors, not an engineer. Ask who signs the report. If a building surveyor needs engineering for a beam, an extension or a certificate, a building inspection won't cover it.
It depends on the structure. A freestanding shed of up to 10 m2 and 2.4 m high, or an unroofed pergola of up to 20 m2 and 2.4 m high, can be exempt from a building permit outside wind regions C and D. A roofed patio isn't a pergola under that rule. Standard certified patio drawings sell for A$330 (GST not stated), but we found nothing confirming a council will accept a standard detail for your site, so check first.
A certified building permit is 0.19% of the value of the work and an uncertified one is 0.32%, each with a $121.00 minimum. The Building Services Levy is 0.137% of value over $45,000, or $61.65 below that. The Construction Training Fund levy of 0.2% applies only when the work is over $100,000.
No. An engineer assesses and designs, and a registered builder does the building work, such as putting in a beam or fixing a footing. One Perth builder charges $300 (GST not stated) for a two-hour wall-removal assessment within a wider renovation and credits it to the next stage, but that's a builder's fee, not an engineering fee. Budget for the engineer, the builder and the permit separately.
Tell us what you need looked at and get a written quote.
