Consulting engineers for structural design
Structural design for Gangelt, from first sketch to handover
Willi Matern M.Sc. designs structures for houses, farmsteads and commercial buildings in Gangelt and the villages around it. You get verifiable calculations, clean reinforcement drawings and an engineer who comes to the site.
- Project
- New build, conversion, extension
- Location
- Gangelt, Heinsberg district
- Service
- Structural design and engineering
- Engineer
- Willi Matern M.Sc.
Ground and slab, start on site Kreis Heinsberg
- Project work
- over 25 years
- Completed projects
- more than 200
- Service area
- Gangelt and the Heinsberg district
01Services
Schedule of services
Planning and consulting in construction, for private and public clients. New builds, refurbishment and conversion of existing buildings, residential and commercial.
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01
Structural calculations, ready for review
We size foundations, walls, slabs, lintels and roof structures, and present the calculations so that the checking engineer can work through them without queries.
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02
Reinforcement drawings and construction details
Every reinforcement is drawn ready to be laid: bar schedule, position, lap length, concrete cover. Nobody on site has to guess what was meant.
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03
Building physics and energy advice
Thermal, moisture and sound insulation belong to structural design. We calculate them while the floor plan can still be changed.
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04
Construction drawings and tender documents
The design becomes a set of drawings you can build from, together with schedules of work that make quotations comparable.
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05
Site management and construction control
We supervise the work, schedule the trades, document the sequence, sign off completed work and make sure defects are put right.
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06
Shell construction, facing and clinker work
The company also builds: masonry, reinforced concrete and earthworks, plus facades in solid clinker and clinker slips.
Steel structure calculations are done in house as well, from the design through the verifiable calculation to the detail ready for assembly, with stress analysis by the finite element method.
Tell us briefly what is to be built. We will tell you which certificates it needs.
Ask about a service02Grid
Axes, bearings, dimensions
A structure is not designed member by member, it is designed on the grid. We fix the axes before the floor plan is final and check at every intersection whether the load may arrive there.
- Axis load bearing wall or column
- Cross bearing, load transfer
- Chain dimension chain, span
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Ground
What you build on decides the foundation and the slab. Where there is no soil report we say so plainly and suggest one.
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Foundations
Strip footing, pad footing or raft. The choice decides settlement, the amount of reinforcement and the cost, and it cannot be corrected later.
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Bracing
Walls and slabs carry the horizontal loads. Large glazed areas and open plans shift that calculation considerably.
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Slabs
Span, deflection and vibration. A slab is not only sized for the load, it is sized for how it feels to stand on.
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Openings
Every opening is an intervention in the structure. Lintels, downstand beams and trimming are calculated beforehand, not afterwards.
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Roof
Rafters, purlins, collar beams and the anchorage against wind uplift. On a roof it is usually the connection that decides, not the section.
The drawing is a schematic illustration and does not show any particular project.
03Existing buildings
Working with existing buildings
In the villages of Gangelt a great deal stands that is older than any record of it. That is exactly where the interesting part of the work begins.
A structure can be assessed even without complete records of the existing building. It simply takes longer, and it takes somebody who has stood in front of one before.
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Survey rather than paperwork
We take measurements, open up selectively where there is doubt, and calculate with what is actually there.
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Old construction, correctly assumed
Timber joist floors, jack arch floors and cavity brickwork follow different rules from a new build.
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Plan the intervention, do not try it out
Wall opening, floor opening, additional storey. What the structure will take is settled before the first blow.
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Evidence for the authority
Where the permit requires structural calculations, we deliver them ready for review, with our assumptions documented openly.
04Documents
What you end up holding
Structural design is a service you cannot pick up and hold. So we say in advance what you get, and in what form.
- 01 Structural calculations ready for review, ordered and traceable
- 02 Position drawing showing every load bearing member
- 03 Reinforcement drawings with bar schedule and concrete cover
- 04 Formwork and construction drawings for the shell
- 05 Thermal and acoustic certificates where they are required
- 06 A contact for the checking engineer, the architect and the site
Which documents your project in Gangelt actually needs depends on the permit procedure and the method of construction. We settle that in the first conversation.
Tell us what is to be built. We put together the list your project actually needs.
Clarify the scope05How it runs
From the first call to handover
Five steps that repeat on almost every project. Small conversions rarely need all of them.
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01
First conversation
You describe the project, we say which certificates it needs and what is still missing.
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02
Documents and site visit
Drawings, soil report, survey of what is there. Where something is missing we come and look at it in Gangelt ourselves.
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03
Calculation and drawings
We size, draw and submit the documents ready for review, agreed with the architect and the client.
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04
Review and approval
We work through the review comments and stay in contact with the checking engineer until approval is given.
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05
Construction and handover
On request we accompany the shell, check the reinforcement before the pour and sign the work off.
The order and the scope follow your project and what the permit requires.
The first meeting settles what your project needs, and in which order.
Arrange a first meeting06On site
From the site
Photographs from our own sites: foundations, reinforcement, the pour, rising masonry. No render, but the state in which a structure can actually be checked.
The photographs come from the practice own projects in the Heinsberg district and do not show any particular address.
Click to enlarge07Service area
Gangelt and the surrounding villages
Gangelt lies in the Heinsberg district, right on the Dutch border. We plan in the old village centres just as much as in the new housing areas at the edge, and the journey from the office to your site stays inside the same district.
Places in the service area
- 01Gangelt
- 02Birgden
- 03Breberen
- 04Schierwaldenrath
- 05Stahe
- 06Langbroich
- 07Kreuzrath
- 08Hastenrath
- 09Selfkant
- 10Waldfeucht
- 11Geilenkirchen
- 12Heinsberg
Calculating and drawing are done in house, from houses to special structures.
If your project lies outside this list, ask anyway. We will tell you honestly whether we can look after it properly.
Request structural design08Questions
Common questions
What clients in Gangelt most often want to know before they pick up the phone.
01 Do I need structural calculations for an extension in Gangelt?
As a rule yes. As soon as load bearing members are altered, additionally loaded or newly built, the building authority requires proof of structural stability. With an extension the existing foundation is loaded as well, and the joint between old and new has to be designed. After a short conversation we will tell you what is required in your case.
02 What do structural calculations cost?
That depends on the building, the method of construction and the scope, so we do not quote a flat rate. After the first conversation and a look at the drawings you receive a written quotation in which the services are listed separately.
03 How long does it take until the documents are ready?
The time depends on the size of the project and on how complete the documents are. It only becomes binding once it is clear what has to be calculated. We name a date as soon as the scope is settled, and we say so in good time if anything shifts.
04 Can you calculate when the old drawings are gone?
Yes. A structure can be surveyed and assessed even when nothing is left in the file. Where there is doubt we open up selectively, document what is actually built in and calculate with sound assumptions rather than guesses.
05 Do you also take on site management?
Yes. We supervise the work on site, schedule the trades, document the sequence of construction and sign completed work off. Where defects appear, the site management makes sure they are put right before building continues.
06 Do you build as well?
Yes. Besides the design work the company carries out shell construction, that is masonry, reinforced concrete and earthworks, plus facing and clinker work. Whether both from one hand makes sense for your project is something we discuss on the specific case.
09Enquiry
Enquiry for Gangelt
Describe briefly what is to be built or changed. You receive an assessment of which certificates are needed, and a quotation before anything is calculated.
- Mobile
- +49 170 2452 777
- Office
- +49 2452 97 89 023
- info@bauen-heinsberg.de
- Address
- Ostpromenade 89, 52525 Heinsberg
This helps at the first conversation
- What is to be built, converted or opened up
- The location and the year the building was built
- Any drawings, photographs or a soil report you have
- When the documents have to be ready