Areas served · Utah
Forensic Engineering in Salt Lake City
In and around Salt Lake City
What we investigate in Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City sits directly over the Wasatch Fault, and its old brick core is exactly the construction that fails in a strong earthquake. We investigate what actually caused a structural or fire loss and document it to a standard that holds up in a claim or a courtroom, and a licensed engineer responds within 24 hours with no travel charges.
The conditions we see in Salt Lake City
The Salt Lake City segment of the Wasatch Fault runs beneath the valley, and the working consensus for the Wasatch Front is roughly a 43% chance of a magnitude 6.75 or greater earthquake within 50 years. Much of the valley rests on loose, saturated Lake Bonneville lakebed and alluvial soils with high liquefaction potential, and Utah Geological Survey scenario modeling of an M7 event shows lateral ground displacement over a foot, worst near rivers, canals, and old lake shorelines. That shaking and ground movement transfer straight into foundations and walls.
The building stock makes it worse. Roughly a quarter of the city's housing predates 1940, and a large share is pre-1960 brick and unreinforced masonry, the construction most vulnerable to shaking, concentrated in the Avenues, Central City, and Federal Heights. The Wasatch Front holds an estimated 140,000 unreinforced-masonry buildings, which is why the city runs its Fix the Bricks retrofit program. Newer development climbs the foothills and canyon benches onto expansive and collapsible bench soils and into the wildland-urban interface.
How we help in Salt Lake City
The evaluations Salt Lake City cases usually call for
- Seismic, soil, and masonry evaluation
When a wall cracks or a foundation shifts in Salt Lake City, the cause can be seismic movement, liquefaction in saturated valley soils, expansive bench soil, or an aging unreinforced-masonry defect. Our licensed engineers evaluate the structure and the ground together and document which one is responsible.
Our structural engineering services- Ground-movement and water loss investigation
We investigate foundation movement, snowmelt-driven water intrusion, and the construction defects that surface in older masonry stock, then determine whether the cause is site conditions, construction, or long-term deterioration. Every conclusion rests on the physical evidence at the property.
Our forensic engineering services
Fire origin & cause
Fire origin and cause in Salt Lake City
A long, cold heating season keeps furnaces, wood and pellet stoves, and space heaters running for months, and heating and chimney fires climb with them, often in pre-1960 brick homes where the wiring has been updated in layers over decades. On the foothills and canyon benches, a wildland fire can carry from the fuels into structures. When a fire starts in an old system or runs fast off a hillside, the cause is rarely obvious in the debris, and the answer decides the claim.
Our NAFI-certified investigators work to NFPA 921. We examine the scene systematically, trace the burn and char patterns back to the area of origin, evaluate the electrical, heating, and mechanical systems, and carry the finding to a defensible accidental or incendiary determination. We preserve the evidence before it is lost, document the conclusion, and testify to it at deposition and trial.
Fires we investigate
- Residential and commercial fires
- Heating-system and chimney fires
- Wildland-urban interface fires
- Electrical and appliance fires
- Vehicle fires
Common questions
Forensic engineering in Salt Lake City, Utah
A different question about your case? An engineer, not a call center, answers within 24 hours.
Could an earthquake or the soil be behind foundation cracking in Salt Lake City?
It can. The valley sits on the Wasatch Fault and on liquefiable lakebed soils, but drainage, expansive bench soil, and construction defects cause similar cracking. We evaluate the pattern and the ground before assigning a cause rather than assume it.
Do you evaluate older brick and unreinforced masonry buildings?
Yes. Much of the city's pre-1960 stock is unreinforced masonry, which needs an assessment that accounts for both its construction era and its vulnerability to shaking. That is a specific part of a structural evaluation here.
Do you charge travel to reach Salt Lake City?
No. We work Salt Lake City-area cases from our Omaha lab and Los Angeles office with no travel charges, and a licensed engineer responds within 24 hours.
Have a loss that needs answers?
Tell us what happened. An engineer, not a call center, will review your case.