A crack above a window in Cottesloe, a wall you want gone in Claremont, a second storey on a Fremantle heritage street. Call now and we'll pass your job to an independent structural engineer who quotes you directly.
Kings Park Structural Co puts home owners in the Western Suburbs & Fremantle in touch with an independent structural engineering firm, from Cottesloe, Claremont, Nedlands and Mosman Park down to Fremantle and East Fremantle. We're a referral service, and the firm we refer to pays to be listed here. It quotes you and contracts with you directly. We don't inspect, design or certify anything ourselves.
WA builds in brick more than any other state: a 2025 HIA-commissioned report put it at 68 per cent of detached houses. In double brick, the inner leaf of the external walls and some internal walls usually hold up the ceilings and roof, which is why a kitchen wall is rarely just a kitchen wall. Add salt air, Perth's coastal strip of Tamala Limestone and Fremantle's heritage areas, and there are a lot of questions worth putting to an engineer before anyone picks up a sledgehammer.
Opening up a kitchen in a double-brick house in Nedlands or Claremont? The engineer works out whether the wall is load-bearing and specifies the beam, posts and footings the building permit needs.
Step cracks in brickwork, or cracks running from the corners of windows and doors near the coast. An engineer's report records what's there, what's likely causing it and what should happen next.
Adding a level or an extension changes floor area or height, so it needs a building permit and engineering. The engineer who quotes your job checks whether the existing walls and footings can take the extra load.
A roofed alfresco in Mosman Park or a carport in Fremantle isn't an exempt pergola, so it usually goes through a building permit. The engineer's certificate (often called a certificate of structural adequacy) goes in with the application.
If a crack has opened in the brickwork above a window or door, sometimes with a rust stain, the steel lintel is one suspect. One WA building-inspection firm calls coastal WA "the perfect rust storm" for steel lintels: rust expands and pushes the brickwork and mortar apart around the opening. That's one inspection firm's view rather than a standard, but it's a fair reason to have a crack near the coast looked at properly.
Width matters. The CSIRO guide to footing performance, which reproduces the AS 2870 damage table, puts hairline cracks under 0.1 mm at category 0, slight damage under 5 mm, moderate damage at 5 to 15 mm and severe damage at 15 to 25 mm. The same guide says monitoring cracks "should always be treated seriously". Measure yours, photograph it next to a ruler and write the date on the photo.
Not every crack is a lintel. Sand can wash out from under footings when a pipe leaks or a downpipe isn't connected to anything, and older masonry has little resistance to that sort of movement. Working out the cause is what an engineer's structural inspection is for; any repair is work for a registered builder. Buying in the area? Many "structural inspections" sold in Perth are pre-purchase reports by building inspectors, not engineers, so ask which one you're paying for.
The City of Fremantle protects around 2,500 heritage sites and has 23 heritage areas, including Central, North and South Fremantle and Hilton. Development at a listed place requires planning approval, and that sits on top of the building permit rather than replacing it. If you're in Cottesloe, Claremont, Nedlands, Mosman Park, Peppermint Grove or East Fremantle, ask your own council early whether your place is listed.
Structural work is where the building permit bites. Under the Building Regulations 2012, a renovation is only exempt if it doesn't affect structural soundness, change floor area or height, touch the footings or remove anything that supports another element. Knocking out a load-bearing wall, going up a storey or building an extension all fall outside that, and work on a place under a heritage protection order or heritage works permit loses the repair exemption too.
For a house you can lodge a certified application (BA1), where a private building surveyor signs the certificate of design compliance first, or an uncertified one (BA2) that the council assesses. The regulations allow 10 business days for a certified application and 25 for an uncertified one, and the clock stops if the council asks for more information. The engineer's drawings and certificate go in either way. More on extension and second-storey engineering and wall removal engineering.
No Perth engineering firm we checked publishes a fixed fee for a crack report, beam design or second-storey engineering. Engineers quote each job, and the price depends on the house, the structure and what the council needs. The engineer who quotes yours will usually want photos or plans first. Our Perth structural engineer cost guide sets out what is and isn't published.
The fees you can pin down are the government's. A certified building permit for a house, or a Class 10 structure such as a patio or carport, is 0.19% of the estimated value of the work (value counted including GST), with a $121.00 minimum. An uncertified permit is 0.32%, same minimum. The Building Services Levy adds $61.65 on work of $45,000 or less, or 0.137% of the value above that.
Registration of structural building engineers in WA began on 1 July 2024, with a transition period until 1 July 2027. From that date structural engineering must be done by a registered building engineer, and you can check anyone on the DEMIRS Building Engineer Register. Kings Park Structural Co is not an engineering firm and holds no registration, so call now on (08) 5550 6237 and we'll pass your enquiry to an independent firm that deals with you directly.
We can't tell you that, and nobody should without seeing the house. CSIRO notes that in double-brick houses the inner leaf of the external walls and at least some internal walls usually carry ceilings, upper floors and roof. Removing a load-bearing wall needs a building permit, and the engineer who quotes your job designs the beam, posts and footings. Call now on (08) 5550 6237 and describe the wall.
We can't say from here, and nobody should call it harmless without looking. Rusting steel lintels do crack the brickwork above windows and doors in coastal WA, but leaks and footing movement crack masonry too. Measure the width, photograph it next to a ruler and note the date, then have an independent structural engineer assess it. Any repair is a builder's job once the engineer has said what's needed.
If your place is on the City of Fremantle's heritage list, development there requires planning approval from the City, and the City has 23 heritage areas. Structural work such as a second storey or removing a load-bearing wall also needs a building permit. Check the City's heritage listings before you brief the engineer, since the design may have to satisfy both.
There's no published Perth price we can honestly quote: the engineering firms we checked all price per job. Expect the engineer to ask for photos, plans or a site visit before giving you a figure. Building permit fees are set by regulation, with a $121.00 minimum, and our Perth cost guide lists the government charges.
Tell us what you need looked at and get a written quote.
