Areas served · Washington
Forensic Engineering in Seattle
In and around Seattle
What we investigate in Seattle
Seattle carries a rare structural burden: it sits over three separate earthquake sources at once, and its steep glacial bluffs slide every wet season. We determine what actually moved a building and why, structural or fire, and document it to hold up. A licensed engineer responds within 24 hours.
The conditions we see in Seattle
Seattle faces seismic exposure from three sources at once: the deep Cascadia subduction zone offshore, the shallow Seattle Fault under the city, and deep intraslab events like the 2001 magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake, which the USGS treats as a defining regional hazard. Winter rains saturate the city's steep glacial bluffs, and the 1996-97 storms triggered widespread landslides across the Puget Lowland. When a bluff-top home cracks, the movement can look like ordinary settlement while the ground beneath it is slowly failing.
Seattle SDCI has inventoried over 1,100 unreinforced masonry buildings, many on liquefaction-prone fill in Pioneer Square, the International District, and Ballard, and that URM stock is the city's defining structural vulnerability. Dense older wood-frame housing lines the steep bluffs, and mid-rise and industrial buildings sit on filled Duwamish and tideflat ground. Aged wiring in that older stock is a recurring fire driver, and the wet maritime climate promotes rot in framing and envelopes.
How we help in Seattle
The evaluations Seattle cases usually call for
- Seismic, slope, and masonry evaluation
On a Seattle bluff or over filled ground, cracking and movement can trace to a landslide, to seismic shaking, to liquefaction under an unreinforced masonry wall, or to a construction defect. Our licensed engineers evaluate the structure and the ground together and document which one caused the damage rather than assume it.
Our structural engineering services- Water intrusion and construction-defect investigation
The wet maritime climate drives rot in framing and envelopes, and roof, plumbing, and drainage failures often overlap with older workmanship on bluff lots. We investigate what caused the loss and separate a defect or maintenance issue from covered damage, grounding each conclusion in the physical evidence at the scene.
Our forensic engineering in Seattle
Fire origin & cause
Fire origin and cause in Seattle
Seattle's dense early-1900s core, from the brick of Pioneer Square to the wood-frame blocks of Capitol Hill and Ballard, burns and collapses differently than modern construction, and aged wiring in that stock starts many of the fires we are called to evaluate. When old masonry or a century-old circuit is involved, the origin evidence is easy to misread, and getting it right is what decides the claim or the case.
Our NAFI-certified investigators work to NFPA 921. They examine the scene systematically, trace burn and char patterns back to the area of origin, evaluate the electrical and mechanical systems, and eliminate causes until the evidence supports one conclusion, accidental or incendiary. We preserve the evidence before it is lost, put the finding in writing, and testify to it at deposition and trial.
Fires we investigate
- Residential and commercial fires
- Older masonry and wood-frame building fires
- Electrical and appliance fires
- Industrial and warehouse fires in the Duwamish and SoDo corridors
- Vehicle fires
Common questions
Forensic engineering in Seattle, Washington
A different question about your case? An engineer, not a call center, answers within 24 hours.
Can you tell a bluff landslide from ordinary settlement?
Yes. A wet-season slope failure on a Seattle glacial bluff loads a structure differently than settlement, so we evaluate the ground, the drainage, and the damage pattern together before assigning a cause.
Do you evaluate unreinforced masonry and older buildings?
Yes. Seattle has over 1,100 inventoried URM buildings, many on filled ground, and they behave differently under shaking than modern framing, so assessing construction era and soil is a specific part of a structural evaluation here.
Do you charge travel to reach Seattle?
No. We work Seattle-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.