When do you need an engineer to build on land?
Not for an ordinary house plan. Virginia lets plans for single- and two-family homes of up to three stories, excluding electrical and mechanical systems, be prepared without an architect or engineer license if the plans carry the author's name, address and occupation. A licensed engineer or architect comes in for a unique structural design, when the building official requires a registered design professional, or for other engineering work.
A house plan up to three stories can be drawn without an engineer's license
A house plan in Virginia does not have to begin with an engineer's seal, and the Code says so directly. The exemption sits in Va. Code 54.1-402, and it names the buildings it covers.
Single- and two-family homes, townhouses, and multifamily dwellings, excluding electrical and mechanical systems, not exceeding three stories; or
Va. Code 54.1-402 A 1
The same subsection extends the exemption to farm structures used primarily in the production, handling or storage of agricultural products or implements. It carries one condition for both: the plans have to bear the name and address of the author and his occupation. So, within the limits below, a home designer, a builder or an owner can prepare a house plan for a building permit application without an architect or professional engineer license, as long as the plan says who drew it.
Carroll County's residential plan checklist puts the same idea in its own words. It says plans for residential work may be exempt from requiring the services and seal of an architect or engineer, and it describes the typical case as a home that is "less than three stories in height". The statute's words are "not exceeding three stories"; "less than" is the county's own summary. Whether a particular three-story plan needs a seal is a question the building official answers.
Outside the exemptions, Va. Code 54.1-406 requires a license before anyone engages in engineering, which the section says includes design, consultation, evaluation or analysis involving proposed or existing improvements to real property.
Unique structural design, and a building official who asks for more
The exemption ends in two ways, and either one is enough to bring in a registered design professional, the USBC's RDP.
The design itself is unique
Va. Code 54.1-402 B takes certain work back out of the exemption no matter what the building is. First on its list is any unique design of structural elements for floors, walls, roofs or foundations. Even inside the three-story limit, a unique structural design for a foundation or a roof is not exempt.
The building official decides it is necessary
Under USBC Section 111.1, the local building department has to keep a procedure that ensures construction documents are prepared by a registered design professional wherever the licensing exemptions do not apply, and also wherever the building official determines it necessary. Section 109 gives the same official power over detail: when determined necessary, construction documents have to include adequate detail of the structural, mechanical, plumbing or electrical components.
All engineered documents, including relevant computations, shall be sealed by the RDP responsible for the design.
13VAC5-63-90, USBC Section 109
Carroll County's checklist says the same thing from the county's side: the local building official may require architect or engineer design even where it would not otherwise be required. That is why no general page, this one included, can tell you whether your plan needs a seal. The office that reviews the permit application makes that call.
A steep subdivision slope, non-natural fill and topography drawn from the air
Some of the points where an engineer enters have nothing to do with the house plan. They come from the ground under it.
A steep slope in a Carroll County subdivision. The subdivision ordinance Carroll County posts, dated April 14, 2014, says areas with slopes greater than 33 percent "may not preclude development" but may add special problems and are reviewed by the County Engineer. If the County Engineer finds special problems exist, the developer has to present a plan for corrective action developed by an engineer licensed in Virginia, which the County Engineer reviews as part of development approval. That clause belongs to dividing and developing land, not to a building permit on a lot that already exists. How grade shapes where a house, a drive and a drainfield can go is laid out in slope, aspect and building.
Fill that is not natural material. Virginia amends the exception to Section 1804.6 of the International Building Code: compacted fill less than 12 inches deep need not follow an approved report if it is natural non-organic material not susceptible to swelling, compacted to at least 90 percent Modified Proctor and verified by an inspector the building official approves. Within that exception, material other than natural material may be used as fill when accompanied by a registered design professional's certification and approved by the building official. That amendment is written to the International Building Code, so whether any similar rule reaches a house pad is a question for the building official.
Topography and contours. Under Va. Code 54.1-402, topography or contours that people not licensed as land surveyors determine through photogrammetric or similar remote-sensing methods are for general information only and may not be used to design or build improvements or to determine a flood plain. Determining topography and contours is part of the practice of land surveying under Va. Code 54.1-400, and so is preparing incidental plans for grading and surface drainage in planning land and subdivisions. A subdivision plat intended for recording has to be prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor, though preliminary studies and plans may come from the owner, planners, architects or others with subdivision experience. How a boundary survey is made is covered in how land surveys work, and who draws the plan a permit office asks for is under what a site plan is and who draws it.
Septic designs and erosion plans run in their own licensing lanes
Two pieces of a homesite run on rules of their own.
The septic system. Va. Code 54.1-402 exempts conventional and alternative onsite sewage systems receiving residential wastewater when a licensed onsite soil evaluator designs them with packaged equipment, the flow is under 1,000 gallons per day, and the statute's other conditions are met. Separately, Va. Code 32.1-165 lets the health department accept a certified evaluation from a licensed professional engineer or from a licensed onsite soil evaluator, installer or operator, among others, and the department is not required to field-check it before issuing the written authorization a building permit waits on. Whether a particular alternative septic system falls inside those conditions is a design question; what owning one involves is under what an alternative septic system is.
The erosion and sediment control plan. Who prepares that plan, and who stays answerable for it when a contractor does the grading, is set by its own statute and explained under what an E and S plan is.
Matching a project on a specific parcel to the point that calls for a seal
Put the pieces side by side and the question becomes a short list of triggers, each with an office that decides it.
| Situation | What the rule says | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| A house plan, three stories or fewer, ordinary construction | Exempt from architect or engineer licensure, electrical and mechanical systems excluded, if the plan bears the author's name, address and occupation (Va. Code 54.1-402 A 1) | The building official, on review |
| A unique structural design for floors, walls, roofs or foundations | Never exempt (Va. Code 54.1-402 B 1) | The building official, on review |
| The building official determines a design professional is necessary | Construction documents are prepared by a registered design professional and engineered documents are sealed (USBC Sections 109 and 111.1) | The building official |
| Slopes over 33 percent in a Carroll County subdivision | County Engineer review; a corrective plan by a Virginia-licensed engineer if special problems exist (posted 2014 ordinance) | The County Engineer, then the Administrator and Agent |
| Design built from photogrammetric contours by someone not licensed as a land surveyor | General information only; not for design, construction or flood plain determination (Va. Code 54.1-402) | Statute; a land surveyor determines topography |
| A residential septic design by an onsite soil evaluator | Exempt under the flow, packaged-equipment and other conditions of Va. Code 54.1-402 | The local health department |
What a buyer's or developer's broader site investigation covers, and which parts of it are licensed work, is under what a feasibility study is.
Not sure whether the house or the site on your parcel needs a sealed design?
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Questions this raises
Do plans for a farm structure in Virginia need an engineer?
Not under the licensing law, unless the structural design is unique. Va. Code 54.1-402 exempts plans for farm structures used primarily in the production, handling or storage of agricultural products or implements, provided the plans bear the author's name, address and occupation. The exemption does not cover any unique design of structural elements for floors, walls, roofs or foundations.
Does the three-story exemption cover a house's electrical and mechanical plans?
No. Va. Code 54.1-402 A 1 exempts plans for single- and two-family homes, townhouses and multifamily dwellings not exceeding three stories, "excluding electrical and mechanical systems", so that exemption does not reach those systems. Whether another exemption applies to them, and what the building official wants to see for them, is a question for the local building department.
Does the health department have to field-check a septic evaluation an engineer certifies?
Not before it issues its authorization. Under Va. Code 32.1-165, the Board, the Commissioner and the Department of Health may accept a certified evaluation from a licensed professional engineer, or from a licensed onsite soil evaluator, installer or operator, among others. The Department may inspect the certified evaluation but is not required to perform a field check before issuing the written authorization that comes before a building permit.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 54.1-402: further exemptions from architect and engineer licensure Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-406: license required, and the advertising rule in subsection C Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-400: definitions of engineering and land surveying practice Virginia General Assembly
- 13VAC5-63-110: USBC Section 111.1, construction documents by a registered design professional Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
- 13VAC5-63-90: USBC Section 109, construction documents and sealed engineered documents Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
- 13VAC5-63-290: amendment to the exception in IBC Section 1804.6, compacted fill Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
- Va. Code 15.2-2262: who prepares a subdivision plat for recording Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 32.1-165: certified evaluations and the authorization before a building permit Virginia General Assembly
- New dwelling packet: residential plan checklist and the architect or engineer seal Carroll County, Virginia
- Subdivision Ordinance, posted April 14, 2014: slopes greater than 33 percent Carroll County, Virginia