Structural

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

A structural design team has the experience and expertise in providing solutions to residential, commercial, and industrial projects.

Our goal at The Eden Group is to be a valuable asset to your project team. Structural expertise and experience has allowed us to design and permit over 500 structural engineering projects in Los Angeles county, San Bernardino county, Orange county, and all other Southern California counties. We take pride in providing structural solutions that adhere to the code while remaining within budget. Our experience ranges from residences on caissons in the hills and all the way to industrial structures located in the deserts of Adelanto. We have worked on many different structural aspects of a project and coordinated with city/county officials in order to get projects approved in a timely manner. We provide various plans and services that entail structural requirements such as Timber design, Concrete design, Masonry design, Steel design, Temporary shoring, Permanent shoring, Caisson systems, Retaining wall design, and Seismic retrofit plans. Also, our structural inspection and structural observation team are always on standby when requested to be on-site allowing the client to continue their work without any interruptions to the construction schedule.

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Did you know that our Rancho Estate project was designed to sit on 230 caissons averaging between 20 feet to 30 feet in depth!

Prior to changing our name to The Eden Group, our firm was called Hillside Engineering which specialized in structural design of hillside homes. Whether you are building a 1,000 sqft home or or a 30,00 sqft home, our team can help assist you with many structural elements used in hillside construction such as retaining walls, permanent shoring systems, caisson design, framing design, and much more. Our team has successfully designed and permitted structures in designated hillside areas in Los Angeles including Hollywood Hills, Encino, Mount Washington, El Sereno, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Bel-Air, Brentwood, Studio City, Porter Ranch, Chatsworth, Arleta, Sunland, La Tuna Canyon, Granada Hills, Knollwood, Sherman Oaks, San Pedro, Northeast Los Angeles, Echo Park, and Boyle Heights. Aside from hillside ordinances, projects can be located in Specific Plan areas which entail additional requirements that can override the cities main requirements. One of the strictest specific plan areas in Los Angeles is called the Mulholland Scenic Corridor. This area requires design review board approvals and a public hearing before a project can be submitted for plan check. Our team has the experience and expertise dealing with the Mulholland Board Review by representing clients at public hearings and assisting them in preparing the development package. Our office is conveniently located steps away from the Van Nuys city hall where the Mulholland Board Review offices are located and where the public hearings are held.

Steps to successfully completing a residence in the hills:

1. Collect soils samples from the property, test the samples in the laboratory, and prepare a soils report based on the data. Depth of bedrock, soils conditions, and geological features can cause fluctuations in construction cost depending on the limits set forth in the report.
2. Survey the property with professional and accurate land surveying tools in order to produce data which describes the characteristics of the land in relation to elevations and shape of the land. The data is then imported into our surveying software to produce a topographic map.
3. Prepare a slope band analysis in order to determine the Floor-Area-Ratio (FAR) which sets forth the maximum size of structure you can build within a given zone.
4. Review zoning information and ordinances that pertain to the given property. Most hillside homes are located within the Baseline Hillside Ordinance which limits the amount of grading, heights of structures, retaining wall count, residential floor areas, off-street parking, lot coverage, setbacks, fire protection, street access, and other project related items.
5. Once you have determined all the constraints and limitations of the project, you can begin to conceptually design the residence. Other items to consider include driveway slopes, dedications, street improvements, Q conditions, easements, and protected trees.
6. Typically, caissons located within a hillside area are required to embed into the bedrock a minimum of 10 feet. Depending on the distance to bedrock, this can increase the cost of construction. Other items to consider include utilizing permanent shoring methods when possible to reduce cost and improve the construction schedule by eliminating the route which requires temporary shoring. However, some circumstances do not allow for the use of permanent shoring techniques.
7. We work directly with your project architect in order to make sure that your project is successful and it is not delayed. Make sure to always hire an architect who has successfully completed and permitted a home in hillside areas because the complexities can increase the cost of construction dramatically. Call us today to speak to an engineer that specializes in hillside homes.

Value engineering helps you reduce the cost of the project while adhering to local building codes!

Whether you are building a brand new structure or expanding on an existing structure, our team can help guide you throughout the process by using your proposed architectural plans to prepare structural drawings that adhere to the latest building code and professional standards. Our company is uniquely positioned due to the fact that our team comprises not only engineers but construction managers as well allowing us to understand the cost impact of the proposed design by identifying areas where we can use value engineering to help reduce the cost of construction.

Permanent shoring is a complex solution that can reduce construction cost and the schedule timeline!

During construction, shoring plays a very important role in providing temporary and/or permanent solutions for structural support. Shoring can be found in many different parts of the project which can include shoring of earth excavations and shoring of structural members. A shoring system which is also known as an Earth Retention System (ERS), is a technique that is used during construction to help prevent excavation walls from collapsing while a structural shoring system provides support various types of members including trusses, formed floors for concrete pours, and temporary support after collapses. Our structural engineering team works with the client early on in the project to determine whether it is feasible to implement a permanent system and/or a temporary shoring system. Depending on the design of the project and the location, a permanent shoring system can save the project a significant amount of cost and time given that the permanent shoring walls can be integrated into the proposed structural walls without the need to remove the temporary system. The permanent shoring technique is usually implemented on hillside projects and on projects where caissions and/or I-beams are proposed.