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Registered professional engineers

Professional Engineers Registration Board Jamaica Institution of Engineers members Since 2009 Kingston

You bring a site or a drawing. We give you a structure that stands — signed and stamped by a registered engineer.

Acidus designs, assesses and certifies buildings and infrastructure. We do not build; your contractor builds to what we draw, and we can inspect that they did. Inspections and certificates are a fixed fee, printed below; design is a fee scale agreed before we start.

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Trusted by New Kingston, Corporate Area, adding a floor — drawings that pass the council first time, and a stamp a bank accepts.

What we do

Four disciplines, method and fee printed

Every drawing is signed and stamped by an engineer registered with the PERB, which is what a parish council needs to approve it. A fixed fee where we can print one; a fee scale on the value of the works where the job is a design.

Structural

3 services · Design & certify · 2–6 weeks

Civil

3 services · Design · 2–4 weeks

Geotechnical

2 services · Assess · 2–3 weeks

Inspection

3 services · Certify · days

A poured concrete building frame under construction against a grey sky.
Fig. Kingston's concrete — A structural frame going up on a design that leaves here stamped.

How a project starts

From the first call to a stamped drawing

The clearer the brief, the faster the fee. Tell us the site, the parish and what you want to build or check; the rest we walk you through.

What we need to start

  • A new designYour architect's drawings, the site and its parish · a fee scale in writing · council-ready structural drawings, stamped.
  • An assessment or a certificateThe address and what a bank or insurer is asking for · a site inspection booked in days · a signed, stamped report.
  • Ground or a foundationThe site and what you plan to put on it · boreholes set out, drilling subcontracted and named · a foundation recommendation you can build on.
  • Something that has gone wrongPhotographs and the address · an urgent inspection if anyone could be at risk · the cause, the danger and the fix, in writing.

Common questions, answered plainly

  1. Do you build, or just design?

    We design, assess and certify; we do not build. Your contractor builds to our drawings, and on a retainer we can inspect that they did. Keeping the designer separate from the builder is exactly what protects you.

  2. Can you stamp drawings for a building permit?

    Yes. Every structural drawing is signed and stamped by an engineer registered with the Professional Engineers Registration Board, which is what the parish council requires before it will approve a permit.

  3. Can you tell me if I can add a floor?

    That is a structural assessment: we survey what is there, calculate what it can carry, and tell you plainly whether the addition is safe as is, needs the foundations or frame strengthened first, or should not happen. Then, if it can, we design it.

  4. Do you do the geotechnical and the boreholes?

    We do the geotechnical engineering — the interpretation and the foundation recommendation. The drilling itself we subcontract to a named contractor and say so; the recommendation you build on is ours.

  5. What is a structural certificate for a mortgage or insurer?

    A signed, stamped letter from a registered engineer that a structure is sound. A bank before a loan, or an insurer before cover, usually asks for one; we inspect properly and turn most round in a few days.

Ask us about your projectEvery question we get