From the structural engineer’s report to the work: how the contractor carries out the recommendations

Project management6-minute readPublished November 9, 2025

Written by the Construction AIM team, a general contractor holding an RBQ licence

You have a structural engineer’s report recommending that a foundation be repaired, a column replaced or a roof redone. The next question is simple: how do you get from paper to the job site? Here is how a general contractor turns those recommendations into work, and who does what between you, the structural engineer hired by the client and the contractor.

What a structural engineer’s report contains

A structural assessment report describes the condition of a building and what needs to be done. It generally includes:

• FindingsObservations from the visit, surveys, photos, measurements.
• AnalysisProbable causes of the deficiencies (settlement, water infiltration, overloading, rot, corrosion).
• RecommendationsCorrective work, sometimes ranked by urgency.
• Temporary measuresIf needed: shoring, restricted access to an area, monitoring of a crack.

A report is not always enough to build from. When the work modifies the structure, the engineer also prepares plans and specifications. The plans show the dimensions, details and connections; the specifications are the written document that sets out the materials, the standards to meet and the construction methods.

Structural engineer’s report, plans and permits: the regulatory steps

The Engineers Act reserves plans for the structural elements of a building to engineers, except for small buildings designed entirely according to the prescriptive solutions of Part 9 of the National Building Code. These plans are signed and sealed. According to the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ), a document is sealed to show that it is complete and to prevent it from being altered.

In Montreal, when work affects the structure, the permit application must include structural plans signed and sealed by an engineer. For a heritage building, an authorization from the City or from the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications may also be required, depending on the building’s status. Elsewhere in the region, each municipality sets its own requirements.

Reading the report through the contractor’s eyes

Before pricing anything, the contractor translates each recommendation into concrete tasks:

• Access: does the job require excavating, taking down a ceiling, setting up a crane, protecting occupied units?
• Structural safety: is temporary shoring needed, and according to which plan?
• Demolition and disposal of the materials removed.
• Materials and methods specified by the engineer.
• Finishing: plastering, painting, backfill, restoring the premises.

This review often raises questions: a missing dimension, an anchoring detail to clarify, a sequence of work to confirm. The contractor sends them to the engineer in writing before submitting a quote. The contractor also identifies what the report does not yet make it possible to price. For example, structural reinforcement can only be priced once the signed and sealed plans and specifications are received; it is then excluded from the initial quote and added later.

From recommendation to quote

A good quote follows the logic of the report. For each recommendation, it states:

• the work included and the planned method;
• the technical exclusions (soil conditions, hidden materials, elements not visible during the visit) and administrative exclusions (municipal permits, traffic signage);
• the estimated quantities, to be confirmed by site measurements;
• the terms and schedule.

That way, you can compare what the engineer recommended with what the contractor commits to doing, line by line. If a recommendation is missing from the quote, ask why.

If a recommendation is missing from the quote, ask why.

During the work: coordinating with the engineer

The work is done according to the plans. For critical steps, such as stripping a ceiling under a weakened frame, it helps to get a note from the engineer that specifies the area, the method and the shoring plan before the work starts.

Field review of the work, particularly to issue a certificate of compliance, is one of the activities the law reserves to engineers. If you give this mandate to your engineer, the engineer comes to check key steps, for example the bottom of the excavation, the reinforcement before the pour or the installation of a beam.

The contractor does not change the plans on its own. Any change goes through the engineer and through you.

Who is responsible for what?

• You, the clientHire the engineer, obtain the permits or coordinate them with the contractor, approve changes.
• The engineerDiagnosis, recommendations, plans and specifications, field review if it is part of the mandate.
• The contractorWork that complies with the plans and codes, job site safety under CNESST rules, work methods, coordination of the trades.

The Civil Code of Québec provides for shared liability: the contractor, the architect, the engineer and the professional technologist who, as the case may be, directed or supervised the work are jointly and severally liable for the loss of the work occurring within five years after the work is completed, unless they can be released from it. Hence the importance of clear documentation at every step.

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