If you have ever called an engineering firm with a small problem and been politely declined, or quoted a number that made no sense for the size of the job, you have encountered a real structural feature of the industry. Most established firms are built around larger projects. A two-hour job incurs nearly the same administrative overhead as a two-month one inside that kind of organization, so small work does not cover its own cost, and they decline it. I built my practice specifically to take the work those firms turn away.
What “small” looks like
The work I am talking about is the genuinely bounded task that still needs a licensed engineer. A stamped letter confirming a deck or a re-roof is adequate. A single connection check. A quick look at one beam in a remodel. A foundation for one sign. A deflection check on a single run of pipe. Plan review and a stamp on a package someone else drew. These are real engineering tasks, they involve real professional responsibility, and they are too small to interest a firm with a business-development department and a project-management layer. For a solo practice with low overhead, a small job is simply a small job.
How an engagement starts, and roughly what it costs
I will be direct about this so you can decide before you even email. Engagements start with a short consultation at no charge, where we determine whether what you need is actually a small job or a larger one that has been described as small. If it is small and well defined, it gets a scoped, fixed proposal. There is a practical minimum, since even a quick stamped opinion involves real review and real liability, so the very smallest jobs are subject to a modest minimum fee. That minimum is low enough that most people with a genuine one-off question find it entirely reasonable, and a two-line email is usually enough for me to tell you quickly whether I am the right fit and roughly what it will cost.
Why I can do it when others cannot
Two reasons. The first is overhead: a one-person practice does not have to support an organization, so the economics of a small job actually work. The second is that I have spent real effort building tools that make well-defined, repeatable work fast and reliable, which means the time a small job takes me is genuinely small, and I can price it accordingly without reducing the quality of the engineering or the documentation.
Who this is for
If three larger firms have already told you no, or quoted you a fee sized for a project ten times as large, this is the message I want you to hear: bring me the small one. The deck letter, the single culvert, the one connection that is keeping a permit from being issued. That is the work I deliberately set up to do, and I will give it the same care I give anything else, because my name goes on it either way. Get in touch and we can figure out quickly whether I am the right fit.