What is a Building Inspection Engineer?

In the building inspection field, there are "Home Inspectors" and "Building Inspection Engineers". So what is the difference? Minnesota does not regulate or the practice of home inspections and does not mandate education and experience. When choosing a home inspector, you need to research the inspector's training and experience in performing home inspections.

The practice of engineering is regulated in Minnesota and Professional Engineers are registered professionals. In order to become registered, the engineers must have obtained a degree from an accredited college or university, pass an 8 hour fundamentals exam, obtain several years of experience working under licensed professionals, pass an 8 hour principles and practice examination, obtain board registration, and obtain continuing education credits to remain licensed. In recent years, a new specialty practice area has developed called "Building Inspection Engineering". Engineers who specialize in building design, construction, analysis, and forensics known as building inspection engineers. There is also a professional organization for licensed Professional Engineers who are building inspection engineers: The National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers. For more information, see "https://www.nabie.org. Licensed Professional Engineers who practice Building Inspection Engineering can also be certified as "Building Inspection Engineers" through education, experience, and knowledge by The Building Inspection Engineers Certification Institute or BIECI. The BIECI Board reviews applications and proctors the certification exam. For more information, see www.bieci.org. The Principal Engineer at Advanced Consulting & Inspection has a certification in Building Inspection Engineering from BIECI, is a member of the National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers (NABIE), and is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE). For more information on the NAFE, please visit their website at www.nafe.org. If you are purchasing a home, you need to start with a pre-purchase home inspection. Advanced Consulting & Inspection does NOT offer prepurchase home inspections and does not recommend home inspectors. If a potential issue is observed, further analysis is necessary. This analysis is typically performed by a Professional Engineer with expertise in building construction and systems (i.e. a Building Inspection Engineer). Advanced Consulting & Inspection offers a range of services that are typically not offered by home inspectors. Since many of these services constitute the practice of engineering, they cannot be performed by home inspectors unless the home inspector is a registered engineer. Please take a few minutes to browse through the services we offer.