At 09:02 AM 9/4/2005, ROBERT CARROLL wrote:
>By the way, a couple of structural engineers have said they have analyses
>that will verify Rohn 45 will meet my requirements and they will be glad to
>put together a report for me for prices around $500. Seems pretty expensive
>for a reprint, but I suppose it's the free market at its best. Does anyone
>on the reflector have such an analysis?
It's not gouging. In most (if not all) jurisdictions, the analysis has to
be be specific for the application. "Rent a wet stamp" kinds of things are
a big no-no.
The $500 isn't paying for the photocopy, it's paying for the expertise and
experience to know that the photocopy is truly applicable in YOUR
particular situation. (like the story of the plumber, the hammer, and the
broken boiler.. $1 for hammering, $99 for knowing where to hammer).
If you want to look at in economic terms, the profit part of the fee (after
paying actual expenses: office, taxes, annual license fees, liability
insurance, etc.) is the ROI for the investment in time and money to get
licensed. (engineering degree + some yrs experience, plus several days of
testing, plus finding other engineers to write reference letters, plus the
few hundred bucks for the initial license). However, I'll bet the vast
majority of P.E.s don't think of it in those terms. They do it because
they like engineering, and they set their rates so they can eat and keep a
roof over their heads. Nobody gets rich being a P.E.
Realistically, it would take the engineer a couple or 4 hours, at least, to
go over your proposed installation and run the calculations (assuming that
they had them "canned" and ready to go), write the report, and so forth. I
also suspect that $500 is a minimum fee for any job, and a simple analysis
of the tower loads might not even be up to the minimum. You might be able
to get some more useful analysis done for the same cost (maybe trading off
anchor designs? Maybe changing the amount or shape of the concrete? What
about the plans for the conduit, etc.)
Jim, W6RMK
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