Engineering Express sends thousands of project quotes every year.
Here’s a summary of all that goes into determining site-specific project fees.
Part 1: Hourly Fees
Part of are design services are for our time & expertise.
Engineering Express uses a ‘blended rate’ for billing time which is an average over thousands of projects for the time professional engineers, designers, and support staff spend on projects.
It’s our goal at Engineering Express to systematize site-specific projects to minimize time spent on projects. We have a whole process for this.
A relatively small amount of time spent preparing designs goes a long way in executing them expediently.
Most projects at a minimum have time billed against items such as project intake, layout, drafting, detailing, design calculations, client coordination, and draft creation & reviews.
By The Numbers
The absolute minimum a site-specific project could take, even for a direct repeat of a project from start to completion, is more than 2 hours.
The average unique small project is typically no more expedient than a starting baseline of 4 hours all elements herein including.
Part 2: Certification & Liability
Consultation is for time. PE certification is for liability and years of experience and education behind our licensure.
Factors such as job size, rising professional insurance costs with large deductibles, defense of our professional certifications, upkeep of our licenses in each state, including personal and corporate licensure, are all contributing factors in how certification is divided between projects.
As storms become more frequent, buildings age, and municipalites seek difficult third-party plan reviewers, proper certification and increased liability are driving up project costs.
By The Numbers
For building product projects, the quantity of units or linear square feet is typically considered, as well as the overall project size and cost to determine a reasonable fee to be responsible for the design.
Commercial projects are billed at a higher certification rate than residential projects due to their increased liability and submission requirements.
An absolute minimum fee is also appropriate for each project to be worth certifying.
Avoid The Quote
Get instant general designs from our plan store
Hundreds of general plans. Purchase certified copies for permit. Modify them with us for your site-specific project.
Part 3: Administration & Ongoing Support
No matter how ‘easy’ the project, every so many have building department follow up.
We also need to
- > Maintain records per our licensure requirements,
- > Answer calls & provide online chat support
- > Intake leads and provide quotes to qualified opportunities, handle follow-up, and manage declined and canceled ones.
- > Maintain a completely custom project management system (we have a full-time, in-house, local development team)
- > Maintain our website with information like this (and a lot more, necessary to help explain work and keep costs down).
- > Send invoices & statements
- > Receive & record payments
- > Perform federal and state tax requirements.
- > And much, much more.
By The Numbers
These costs typically account for a 20%+ markup on projects to maintain.
Typically, these costs are factored into the time estimated for each project, easily adding 1/2 hour+ to each quote.
To accomplish a certified, national presence, a team of more than eight (8) on staff are dedicated to administrative support full time.
Averages, Minimums, & The Bottom Line
In 2024, the average site-specific project design fee, subtracting the 10% extremes is just over $1,200.
We have a significant number of clients in 2025 in the $800 price range (peak of the bell curve) for smaller site-specific projects AFTER we perform discovery & setup services.
In no case have we taken a site-specific project from scratch under $400 all in. It’s just not worth our time and liability (Our Online Plan Store is the place to find lesser priced certified plans.
If you want us to review your site-specific project need, start by completing the below.
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Last Update: May 28, 2025
