Providing Design without a Stamp 1

[Constructioneer]

I have been offering construction engineering services for a short time now and have been asked to provide a design for a temporary structure to be used on a construction project. The project is fully within my area of expertise and I am licensed in the state where the structure will be used. The structure is not intended to protect or be accessed by the public however, workers will use it to suspend material while being sand blasted.
Since I am just starting out, I have no liability insurance and am a little iffy on stamping plans until I am covered.
1) Is it permissible for me to provide the design plans and calculations if the client is agreeable to this arrangement?
2) Should I be concerned with stamping my designs in the future without coverage as long as it is not required by my clients (provided I have checked and re-checked the design)?

Thank you,
Tim

 

[hokie66]

Stamped or not, you are responsible for your designs.

 

[VoyageofDiscovery]

Liability insurance is for your protection.

If something were to occur as a result of your calculations or drawings or just ambiguities, will the Client pay for the damages? If so get this in writing every time you provide service.

VOD

 

[VoyageofDiscovery]

Wrt stamping, in Canada, no final structural design, report or drawings can go out without a stamp, period.

Check with the respective state laws.

VOD

 

[IRstuff]

Simple answer to simple question: If the design fails, will you get sued?

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Insurance is only a few thousand a year - depending on the kind of work you do and the amount.

Fork it over.... and protect yourself. It's tax deductible.

 

[JAE]

Many states require that ANY engineering services have a stamp on the instruments of service (i.e. the plans).

If you provide engineering and don't stamp it, you might be violating the engineering law in your area.

 

[IRstuff]

Additionally, how are you going to prove what is yours and what is someone's, who came after you. By stamping, you can trivially limit your liability to the stuff that you did, "If it ain't stamped, it ain't mine."

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[Constructioneer]

Thank you all for the responses. To add to them, I called the state board and received this response:
If the drawings and calculations are interim, no seal is required but the name and lic. no. of the engineer in responsible charge of their preparation is required. If the drawings and calculations are final, a signed seal is required.

In sum, I will be providing my seal and signature on the package. I am looking into insurance coverage now. Thanks again for the help.

Tim

 

[rtmote]

To answer your specific question, stamping is usually only required for permanent work. I do not stamp temporary works, the quality, specification and physical construction falls outside the QA/QC practises followed for permanent structures.


Robert Mote

http://www.motagg.com

 

[DonPhillips]

In the current electronic age, you need to think about protecting yourself even further. Anyone can create a seal, look up a name and number on most state websites, and off they go. All they are missing is the signature. Pretty scary.

I place my seal on its own layer in AutoCAD and freeze that layer when I plot/print review sets. Since my titleblock and seal is in paperspace, I simply wblock the modelspace entities and e-mail that to whoever needs it. Otherwise my review sets are plotted in pdf format for e-mail purposes - sans seal. Final sets contain the seal and I digitally sign the pdf when I "deliver" the final set to the client. With Adobe Acrobat, you can create a single pdf with each sheet separately available within the pdf. Pretty cool software.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[davidbeach]

Don, never insert the stamp into the drawing, always xref it in. Send the drawing and the stamp file stays behind.

 

[DonPhillips]

By wblocking it, the block reference of the seal is not placed in the file. Only the entities selected make it to the wblock. Makes the drawings smaller too - as well as clean up the unused layers.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[IRstuff]

Just an addendum, the California PE act stipulates "
6735. Preparation, signing, and sealing of civil engineering documents
(a) All civil (including structural and geotechnical) engineering plans, calculations, specifications, and reports (hereinafter referred to as "documents") shall be prepared by, or under the responsible charge of, a registered civil engineer and shall include his or her name and license number. Interim documents shall include a notation as to the intended purpose of the document, such as "preliminary," "not for construction," "for plan check only," or "for review only.""

In California, ostensibly, even a back-of-the-envelope calculation legally requires your name and license, but, not your stamp.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[RVSWA]

There have been many good comments regarding the proper use of the stamp, when to sign and when to mark as preliminary, etc.
To provide an electronic signature, we follow this process. We have an 8.5x11 sheet with our seal on it (about 8 per page) when we sign the stamp we date it and add our job number next to the seal as well. Next to the seal we provide, for our records, not to be displayed, the clients name and purpose of stamping the drawing. We then cut and paste this into model space and a view port in each paper space displays the stamp. Here in the State of Washington, the use of electronic signatures is allowed provided they are something like "original and verifiable". We keep a permanent copy of all stamps. When we deliver drawings we deliver them in PDF format only. If a cad file is necessary we wblock out the part of the drawing that is required and send only that, no stamp or details. On the topic of insurance someone made a comment that it is for our protection, I also see it is for the clients protection. Given our influence over such a large project, it is possible we could error in such a fashion as to leave the client with substantial damages. I personally see it as a way fulfill my commitment to my clients. It is very much a risk management issue however and if I had a simple component I might just take care to design it and go bareback on the insurance. I was once told to chose one of two ways, insure to the hilt or go without. If you have nothing to give a law suit may go away all by itself. But then I'm not a Lawyer, I only watch them on TV.