Structural Engineering

A safe structure begins with a strong foundation. Our engineering approach accounts for reinforcement detailing, concrete strength specifications, and drainage provisions to ensure long-term durability. By properly sizing footings and considering soil bearing capacity, hydrostatic pressures, and frost depth, we design foundations that exceed code requirements and provide reliable support for any building type. 

We provide full-system timber framing design, including beams, joists, trusses, diaphragms, and connections. Using advanced engineering methods, we account for vertical, lateral, and cyclic loads, ensuring stability under all conditions. Our designs comply with BCBC 2024, CSA standards, and EGBC guidelines, guaranteeing safe and efficient framing systems for residential and commercial projects. 

Steel structures demand careful attention to joint behavior, fatigue, and buckling resistance. We design steel framing systems that optimize load transfer and durability, while also meeting seismic and wind load requirements. By following CSA S16 standards, BCBC 2024, and EGBC guidelines, we ensure compliance and deliver structural systems that perform safely over their full service life.

Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) walls provide both energy efficiency and superior structural capacity. Our team is experienced in designing ICF systems, reviewing site installations, and performing field inspections to ensure compliance with engineering requirements. We integrate reinforcement design, concrete placement methods, and lateral resistance checks to deliver ICF walls that are safe, efficient, and code-compliant. 

 Tall walls in concrete, steel, or timber require advanced analysis to resist buckling, lateral drift, and combined axial-bending stresses. We specialize in designing complete systems that safely manage vertical and horizontal loads, ensuring that tall wall structures remain stable under seismic, wind, and service conditions. Our expertise allows us to engineer practical solutions for both residential and commercial applications. 

Shear walls are critical structural elements that provide in-plane lateral resistance to seismic and wind-induced forces. Our design process incorporates a full dynamic analysis of lateral load paths, including diaphragm-to-shear wall interaction, boundary element confinement, and coupling beam design where applicable. We evaluate overturning moments, shear flow distribution, and chord force development, ensuring that both strength and stiffness criteria are satisfied in accordance with BCBC 2024, CSA A23.3, and NBCC seismic provisions. By integrating capacity-based design principles and verifying compliance with interstorey drift limitations, we engineer shear wall systems that prevent brittle failure modes and ensure ductile performance under ultimate limit state conditions. 

At BC Foundations, we apply rigorous engineering principles to every project, ensuring the correct consideration of vertical, lateral, cyclic, and environmental loads. From footings to framing, our designs meet and exceed all governing codes and standards.

We proudly serve clients in Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton, Kamloops, Merritt, Salmon Arm, Victoria, Nanaimo, and Prince George, as well as surrounding communities across the province. Wherever your project is located in BC, our team is ready to provide professional design, compliance, and field review services you can trust.