People commonly call us structural engineers because we evaluate foundations, framing, retaining walls, seismic concerns, cracks, movement, and other conditions that affect the structure of a home. In the ordinary sense of the term, that description makes sense. In California, however, “Structural Engineer” is a specific, legally regulated title. BEAR’s work is performed by civil engineers who specialize in residential foundations and related conditions. Unless an individual engineer has obtained California’s additional Structural Engineer authority, we do not represent that person as a Structural Engineer (we try to correct realtors & clients where possible but as you'll see below, it's complicated).  That distinction does not mean a California-licensed Civil Professional Engineer is unqualified to evaluate or design structural components of a home. It means California uses the term “Structural Engineer” differently than most people (and many other states) use it.
 
What “Structural Engineer” Means in California

California grants the title of Structural Engineer, commonly shortened to SE, as an additional authority available only after someone has already become a licensed Civil Engineer. To obtain it, the engineer must complete at least three additional years of qualifying structural engineering experience after becoming licensed and pass an extensive national structural engineering examination.

The required experience is intentionally broad. It must include multiple construction materials, lateral forces such as seismic or wind, framing systems, foundation systems, code application, and multistory buildings or equivalent structures. California even excludes work on certain conventional residential structures from the experience that qualifies someone for the SE credential. In other words, the additional SE process is primarily designed to establish advanced structural design qualifications across larger, more complicated, and more heavily regulated structures. 

The distinction is especially important for public schools and hospitals. According to the California licensing board, a Structural Engineer may design any type of building, while a Civil Engineer may design any type of building except public schools and hospitals. For ordinary residential buildings, a California Civil Engineer has the legal authority to perform structural engineering work. The state’s building-design authority chart states that distinction directly.

Therefore, the SE title should not be interpreted as the dividing line between engineers who understand structures and engineers who do not. It is an additional California credential required for a limited category of buildings and advanced structural work. It is not a requirement for evaluating or designing the foundations and structural components of a typical home.

Structures Is a Core Part of Civil Engineering

Structural engineering is not separate from the basic education and licensing of a civil engineer. It is one of the central parts of civil engineering.
Civil engineering education includes statics, mechanics of materials, structural analysis, structural design, construction materials, foundations, soils, retaining walls, groundwater, hydraulics, hydrology, and drainage. These subjects overlap because buildings do not behave as isolated structural frames. The framing transfers loads into the foundation, the foundation transfers those loads into the soil, and the performance of the soil is affected by water, drainage, slopes, groundwater, vegetation, grading, and nearby construction.

The Fundamentals of Engineering exam, commonly called the FE exam, tests civil engineers on structural analysis, structural design, mechanics of materials, geotechnical engineering, foundations, retaining walls, groundwater, drainage, and other core civil subjects. The national PE Civil examination then tests engineers at the professional licensing level within their selected civil engineering discipline. The Civil-Structural version covers structural loads, seismic forces, load paths, foundations, retaining walls, wood, concrete, steel, masonry, connections, and related design issues. California Civil Engineer applicants must also pass separate state examinations in Engineering Surveying and Seismic Principles. 

A California Civil PE has therefore completed an engineering education, accumulated qualifying professional experience, passed the required national examinations, and passed California’s additional seismic and surveying examinations. Structural behavior is not something added only when an engineer earns the SE title. It is already a substantial part of civil engineering education, experience, and licensure.

Residential Foundation Work Is Not Purely Structural

The conditions we evaluate rarely fit neatly within one engineering specialty. A sloping floor may be related to framing, but it may also be caused by soil settlement, expansive soil, inadequate foundation support, groundwater, erosion, poor drainage, hillside movement, deterioration, previous repairs, or some combination of these conditions. A foundation crack is a structural symptom, but understanding why it developed often requires looking beyond the concrete itself.

In many cases, the more important question is not simply whether a crack exists. The real questions are what caused it, whether the condition is active, how the house is responding, whether water is contributing to it, whether the movement is localized or widespread, and whether repair is necessary at all. Answering those questions requires a broad civil engineering perspective that combines structures, soils, foundations, drainage, construction, and field observation.

California also has a separate Geotechnical Engineer title, commonly shortened to GE. Like the SE, it is an additional authority available to licensed Civil Engineers who complete further qualifying experience and pass another demanding examination. The existence of both the SE and GE titles illustrates the problem with trying to place residential foundation evaluations into a single category. The work sits at the intersection of structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, drainage, groundwater, construction, and residential building performance.

The Specific Experience Matters More Than the General Title

An SE credential is a significant professional achievement, but the credential by itself does not mean that an engineer specializes in diagnosing residential foundation conditions. A Structural Engineer may spend an entire career designing hospitals, schools, high-rise buildings, bridges, or large steel and concrete structures without regularly evaluating existing residential foundations, crawlspaces, drainage systems, or soil-related movement.  You can also imagine that an engineer that goes to the extreme lengths required to be a SE in California, will probably pursue a career in a more design intensive and complicated field than residential foundation inspections (we personally do not know of SE's that regularly perform residential foundation inspections).

The same principle applies to Civil Engineers and Geotechnical Engineers. A license establishes a professional level of education, experience, examination, and responsibility. It does not mean that every engineer with that license has equal experience in every type of project.
Residential foundation evaluation is its own specialization. An engineer develops that specialization by inspecting hundreds or thousands of homes, seeing how different foundation systems perform over time, comparing visible conditions with measured floor movement, understanding local soil and groundwater patterns, recognizing common construction methods, following past recommendations, and learning which conditions require action and which do not.

That is the specialization BEAR has developed. Our foundation inspectors focus on residential foundations, drainage, seismic conditions, retaining walls, and related structural concerns. Our inspections combine the inspector's civil background with BEAR-specific training, floor-elevation data, crawlspace observations, drainage evaluation, local experience, and the accumulated knowledge from a large number of previous inspections. That focused experience is more relevant to the work we perform than whether someone has pursued an additional credential centered largely on other types of structures.

Hopefully that helps explain the terminology - if you have any additional questions, you can email directly, and I'm happy to go into it further (Nathan - nathan@beareng.com)