Property Management

We provide structural design for a variety of small projects, including houses, garages and other accessory buildings, decks, barns, and more. We can design for all sorts of scenarios, using wood, engineered wood products, structural and cold-formed steel, concrete, masonry, aluminum and other materials.

Structural design services we can provide for new construction include:

Foundations
Retaining walls
Basement walls
Footings
Pile & grade beam
Slab-on-grade
Steel helical piles
Permanent Wood Foundations (PWFs)
Oversized basement windows (over 1.2 m [4ft] wide)

Walls
Wind walls
Shear walls
Bearing walls
Load-bearing headers
Dropped headers
Brick lintels
Tall wood walls (over 3.6 m [12 ft] tall)
Slender masonry walls (height over 20x thickness)

Floors
Beams and joists
Flush beam framing
Reinforced openings
Cantilevers

Roofs
Rafters
Joists
Site-built trusses or gambrel frames

Extreme Loading
Storage rooms
Hot-tub supports
Supports for exercise equipment
Fall-arrest anchor points
Storm safe rooms
Rooms under a garage or driveway
Equipment sensitive to vibration
Owner specified loads exceeding minimum code requirements”

The building envelope plays a critical role in regulating the indoor temperature and moisture movement within a building. It also protects the building from the elements such as the sun, rain and snow, as well as harmful substances, toxins, pests and pathogens. In addition, the building envelope also seves an aesthetic function, giving the building its external appearance. Which, in the case of a heritage building, may need to be preserved.

OCI Group specializes in building envelope investigations, providing expert analysis of exterior systems to identify and resolve issues related to water intrusion, air leakage, and structural integrity. Our structural forensic engineering team conducts thorough assessments of roofing, cladding, windows, and other critical components to determine the root causes of failures. Whether addressing construction defects, material degradation, or design flaws, OCI Group delivers detailed reports and actionable recommendations to restore and protect the performance of your building’s envelope.

Damage to soil-supported and soil-retaining structures such as foundations, swimming pools, above and below ground tanks, and retaining walls can be caused by a variety of factors including settlement, vibrations, flooding, water intrusion or a combination thereof. Many of these losses require full understanding of the interaction between the structure and the soil around it. Most of our forensic structural engineers received graduate level training in soil-structure interaction, slope stability, and geo-structural engineering. They have utilized their high-level academic training and the most advanced software tools in this field to help demystify complex losses involving foundation walls, retaining walls and road embankment failures. Our geo-structural experts expeditiously examine and document the loss, conduct the necessary geo-structural analyses, identify the most likely cause of the damage, and devise effective loss mitigation strategies.

There is a wide variety of plumbing products (fixtures and fittings) which exhibit design deficiencies, manufacturing defects, and or possible installation deficiencies that can cause a failure and subsequent property damage due to water discharge. Residential homes, high-rises, and commercial buildings are provided with plumbing and piping systems, making the number of potential failures almost infinite.

A plumbing fixture is a part that is connected to a plumbing system and carries water through a building. The most common plumbing fixtures are bathtubs, sinks, showers, tubs, toilets faucets, urinals, and floor drains. A plumbing fixture is permanently fixed into walls or the floor by way of bolts, screws, nails, glue, cement or other means, whereas a plumbing fitting is an item that can be hung by a hook, screw or nail. The most common plumbing fittings are elbows, tees, reducers, unions, couplings, crosses, caps, swage nipples, plugs, bushings, adapters, outlets, valves, and flanges.

Origin and Cause experts are frequently involved in matters where properties have been damaged by water discharging from plumbing fixtures and fittings and are requested to determine whether the failures were the result of a manufacturing defect, design deficiency, or a deficiency in the installation, lack of maintenance, abuse, or usage. Although these investigations sound straight forward, this is rarely the case. They can be very complex as they may involve a combination of factors that led to the incident that requires the use of advanced analytical techniques to determine and to confirm the failure mode and cause. For example, the effects of a latent and minor defect can be increased significantly in service by an installation deficiency, or vice versa. And one would not be able to indicate only by visual examination alone whether a plumbing component was degraded and by what mechanism.

Assessing building materials and components, and evaluating overall structural health, are crucial for minimizing the risk of structural failures and ensuring occupant safety. We assists clients in addressing challenges related to design flaws, structural defects, faulty systems, and building component issues. Our team of engineers and investigators have the experience and understanding of these issues to offer comprehensive solutions, including root cause investigations and recommendations necessary for repairs and mitigation.