Engineer of record

One engineer. Every visit. Every seal.

Scapular Engineering, P.E. — Missouri licensure since 2019, residential structural work. The person who walks into your house is the person whose license goes on the letter, and the person who picks up when you call about it later.

An engineer shining a flashlight on floor joists and a steel beam in a basement
Background

Residential structural, on purpose.

B.S. in Engineering, University of Missouri, 2013. PE licensure issued by the Missouri board in 2019, with reciprocal Illinois licensure since 2020. That's why Metro East work gets sealed here instead of handed to somebody else.

Residential structural is the work. It's a deliberate choice, not a fallback. Homeowners are the clients with the least access to a straight answer and the most to lose from a bad one: a family plans a kitchen around a wall, gets three contradictory opinions from contractors, and has no way to adjudicate between them. That gap is worth filling well.

How this practice runs

Three commitments, stated plainly.

We don't sell the repair

We do not install beams, pour footings, or fix foundations, and we take no referral fees from anyone who does. That independence is the entire value of a structural opinion. An engineer who profits from the recommendation is not giving you an opinion, he's giving you a quote.

The cheap answer is a real answer

An assessment may determine that the proposed opening does not require structural design. We explain the findings and the documentation within the agreed scope.

Nothing gets sealed that wasn't seen

Every letter is based on a visit by the engineer whose seal is on it. No desk reviews of somebody else's photos, no technician-collected data written up by a licensee who never saw the house. If a report has a seal on it, the person behind that seal stood in the room.

Credentials

The paperwork.

  • Missouri PE — Active since 2019, issuing board APELSLA
  • Illinois PE — Licensed, reciprocal since 2020, covers Metro East work
  • $2,000,000 aggregate / $1,000,000 per claim professional liability (E&O), A+ rated carrier. Certificate available on request to any homeowner, contractor, or plan reviewer who asks.
  • B.S. Engineering, University of Missouri, 2013

Missouri licensure is publicly verifiable through the state board's license lookup, and Illinois through IDFPR. You should check. It takes ninety seconds and anybody asking you to make a structural decision should expect you to do it.

The wider practice

Part of Scapular Engineering.

Is It Load Bearing is the residential-structural arm of Scapular Engineering, LLC. The other practices serve different clients entirely, but every one of them runs through the same license and the same phone number.

  • MFG Inspections: manufactured-home structural reports across seven states
  • Midwest FHA Inspect: the FHA-pipeline specialty for loan officers, built around HUD Handbook 4000.1
  • Affix Report: affixation documents at volume for dealer-finance and rent-to-own partners
  • STL Alumiconn: aluminum branch-wiring certification for insurance binding and real-estate transactions
  • STL Cornice: cornice, parapet, and chimney inspections for older St. Louis brick buildings

If a job crosses practices (you're buying a house that needs both a wall opinion and an aluminum-wiring cert), it gets handled in one visit instead of two engagements. The firm site has the full picture.

Stop guessing. Book the walk-through.

An engineer stands in your house, reads the load path, and tells you straight: this wall goes, or this wall stays and here's what it costs to open it anyway.

Visit45–75 minutes, most homes
VerdictBefore the engineer leaves
LetterSealed PDF in 3 business days
AreaSt. Louis metro + 60 miles
EngineerScapular Engineering, P.E.

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