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Full services directory How it worksFor prosAbout Get matched Call (866) 582-8523A general inspection flags concerns. It is not licensed to determine causes. Knowing where that line sits — and what to do in the days after a report says "further evaluation recommended" — is most of the value here.
A structural inspection is a scheduled examination of the parts of a house that carry load — usually commissioned before a purchase, before a renovation, or to re-check something already known about. Two different professionals perform two different versions of it. A general home inspector produces a broad, visual, non-invasive report and refers concerns onward. A licensed engineer determines cause and specifies remedy. Most homeowners meet the first one first, and the moment that matters is the referral between them.
Work out which occasion you are in
Four situations bring people here and they want different things. Under contract with a clock running: you need speed and a document that supports a negotiation or an extension. Pre-renovation: you need a finding early enough to change the drawings. Following up an old "further evaluation recommended" that nobody actioned: you need the specific question answered. Establishing whether previous structural work held: you need a baseline and a comparison. Say which one you are in when you call — it changes who you should be hiring.
Watch for: Booking the standard product because it is the one advertised. The occasion determines the scope, and the scope determines whether the report is any use to you.
Decide which inspection you are actually buying
A general home inspection covers the whole house — roof, systems, envelope, structure — visually and non-invasively, to a published standard of practice. A structural inspection by an engineer is narrower and deeper: fewer systems, more determination. Buying the second when you needed the first, or the reverse, is the commonest waste of money in this category.
Watch for: Booking a general inspection when you already know the question is structural. You will pay for a broad report that ends by telling you to hire the person you should have hired first.
Access decides how much you get
Inspection is visual. Crawl-space hatches, basement corners, attic access, the interior of a bearing wall — whatever cannot be reached is not assessed, and a competent report says so explicitly. Finished basements and sealed crawl spaces are where the most consequential things quietly go unlooked-at.
Watch for: A report with no limitations section. Every honest inspection has one. Its absence means either nothing was excluded — unlikely — or the exclusions were not written down.
"Further evaluation recommended" — read this as a specific instruction
This phrase appears because the inspector observed something outside what their licence allows them to conclude. It is not hedging and it is not filler. It means: a defined question exists, and answering it requires a professional with a different licence. Treat the sentence as a work order with a name attached.
Watch for: Reading the phrase as reassurance because the report did not use the word "serious". Inspectors are constrained in their wording by their standards of practice, not by how worried they are.
The referral, inside a purchase timeline
In a transaction the practical constraint is the clock. Engineers are not always available at three days' notice, so the moment you see the referral language, start calling. Where the contingency period genuinely cannot accommodate it, an extension request supported by the inspection report is a reasonable ask and sellers routinely grant it — a buyer who walks helps nobody.
Watch for: Accepting a seller's existing report as your evaluation. It answers the question the seller asked, at the time they asked it, and you did not choose who wrote it. Read it, then decide whether it covers your question.
Pre-renovation: inspect before you design, not after
If you are opening walls, adding a storey, converting an attic or putting a heavy load somewhere it has never been, the structural assessment belongs at the front of the design process. The finding changes the drawings. Discovering it after the drawings are approved means paying for them twice.
Watch for: A designer or contractor who says the structure "will be fine" without anyone qualified having looked. It is a prediction, and you are the one who pays if it is wrong.
Monitoring and re-inspection — the evidence nobody wants to wait for
The most important structural question is usually not how bad something is but whether it is still moving. Dated photographs with a scale in frame, marked crack ends, recorded floor levels, and a repeat visit some months later produce a comparison. That comparison is real evidence, and it is the only thing that reliably separates a live defect from an old one.
Watch for: Monitoring with no baseline. Undated photos taken from different angles prove nothing later. Establish the record properly the first time or the waiting is wasted.
A general home inspection is a set fee for the whole house; an engineer's structural inspection is priced on time and is usually the larger number for a narrower scope. Re-inspection visits are typically cheaper than the first. Ask what the fee includes before booking — some quote the visit and price the report separately.
See the full structural inspection cost guide — by material, size and region →
Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.
The components an inspector is looking at, one by one — joists, beams, posts, headers, rafters, trusses, sheathing.
Sagging and bouncy floors, cracked beams, failed joists, storm and termite damage.
When the question is about the foundation itself rather than the framing above it.
Moisture, ventilation and rot conditions under the floor, which is where most inspections find their findings.
Are you a licensed engineer or a home inspector, and what does your licence let you conclude?
The single clarifying question. It sets what the report can and cannot say before you have spent anything, and it prevents the frustrating outcome of buying a document that ends in a referral.
Will you enter the crawl space and attic, and what conditions would stop you?
Standing water, insulation over joists, low clearance and pest activity all end inspections early. Knowing the deal-breakers beforehand lets you clear access rather than pay for a visit that could not proceed.
When will I have the written report, and can I get it before my contingency expires?
In a transaction the delivery date is as important as the content. Agree it explicitly — verbal findings on the day are not something you can attach to a request for an extension.
How do you document baseline conditions for future comparison?
If there is any chance you will be re-inspecting, the first visit must produce measurable, repeatable reference points. Ask how, and ask for the photographs in the file.
What will your report say about areas you could not access?
You want those listed explicitly rather than passed over in silence. Unstated exclusions are how a report ends up implying more coverage than it delivered.
Do you also perform repairs, or work for anyone who does?
Asked briefly here because it changes how you weigh the findings. The full version of this test, and why it matters more than anything else on the page, is on the engineering referral path.
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