--- title: "Value Engineering" description: "Frame, grid, foundations and precast reviewed for the same building at less cost, with every alternative designed and signed for." updated: "2026-10-12" url: "https://www.petruf.ie/services/structural-engineering/value-engineering" --- # Value Engineering > Frame, grid, foundations and precast reviewed for the same building at less cost, with every alternative designed and signed for. Value engineering is going back through a design to get the same building for less: a different structural system, a simpler grid, less material in the same member. It is not deleting things until the number fits. What is never traded is what the building has to do: fire resistance, durability, robustness, and a design that can be certified. An option that touches any of those is not an option. We review our own frames and schemes drawn by other engineers, for developers, contractors and design teams. When an alternative is taken we design it, carry it into the drawings and sign for it, including the BCAR ancillary certificate. Turning an in situ or steel scheme into precast is a large part of that work, and where precast will not pay we say so. ## What we look at ### Frame and stability system Precast, in situ, steel or a hybrid, chosen for the building rather than by habit, with the stability system that suits it. ### Grid, spans and floors A grid that repeats, spans the floor type carries economically, and floor depths that take the services without growing the building. ### Transfer structures Where the layout above does not line up with the layout below, the transfer is reworked or designed out before it is priced. ### Foundations Pads, strips, rafts or piles chosen from the ground information, and existing slabs reused where they can take the new load. ### Precast repetition Fewer unit types and moulds, connections that repeat, and a scheme fixed early enough for precast to pay. ### Steel and reinforcement Tonnage and rebar weighed against connection and fixing cost, since the lightest member is not always the cheapest one. ### Buildability and sequence Crane reach, lift weights, access and erection order, so the saving on paper survives the site. ### Programme What each option does to the time on site, priced alongside what it does to the materials. ## When it pays The earlier a review happens, the more of the design can still move and the less a change costs to make. Late in the job most of the value has already been spent. ### Concept: Frame type, grid, spans and floors The most. Nothing is drawn in detail that a change has to undo. **Where it pays most.** ### Planning: Member sizes, floors, foundations, precast or in situ A great deal, inside the envelope the permission allows. **Where it pays most.** ### Tender: Sizes, connections, foundations and sequence Still worth it on a scheme that has come in over budget, priced against the cost of redrawing. ### Construction: Details, sequence and temporary works Rarely much. Anything ordered or cast is fixed, and a late change often costs more than it saves. ## What you receive A review ends in decisions that can be priced, not a list of ideas. - An options note comparing each alternative on cost, programme, risk and what it changes in the design - Member sizes and marked up drawings for every option worth pricing - Quantities the quantity surveyor or the contractor can price against - A clear statement of who carries design responsibility for each change - The chosen option carried into the structural drawings and calculations - The ancillary certificate for the redesigned elements, where the job is under BCAR ## From our projects ### [Santry Residential](https://www.petruf.ie/projects/residential/santry-residential) Three seven storey blocks on precast crosswalls. Block C was built first and the others followed the same approach, so the detail was resolved once. ### [Carbery Cheese Diversification](https://www.petruf.ie/projects/industrial/carbery-cheese-diversification) Two phases in precast twin walls built off the existing in situ ground slab, so the new work picks up the old. ## The questions that come first ### What is value engineering? A structured review of a design to get the same performance for less: a different structural system, a simpler grid, less material in the same member, a foundation that suits the ground better. It starts from what each part of the building has to do and asks for the cheapest way to do it, rather than from what can be taken out. ### When is value engineering worth doing? While the design can still absorb the change, which usually means before tender and ideally before planning. Done after the frame is ordered it tends to save less than it costs to put in place, because anything bought, fabricated or cast is fixed. ### Is value engineering just cost cutting? It should not be. Cost cutting deletes items or lowers the specification until the number fits. Value engineering keeps what the building has to do and changes how it is done. Fire resistance, durability, robustness and a design that can be certified are never part of the trade. ### Who is responsible for a value engineered design? Whoever designs the alternative. When we propose and design one, we take design responsibility for it and sign for it, including the ancillary certificate under BCAR. When a contractor proposes an alternative of its own design, the responsibility for that design goes with it, and the appointment should say so in writing. ### Can you review a design by another engineer? Yes. Developers and contractors bring us schemes drawn by other offices, usually because a tender has come in over budget. We say which alternatives are worth pricing, and where one is taken we design it and sign for it, so the responsibility is never left between two offices. ### Does a design change need certifying again under BCAR? Where the job is under BCAR and the change affects certified work, yes: the designer of the change certifies it and the assigned certifier has to be told. The earlier a change is made, the less of that there is, which is one more reason to review before commencement. ### Is precast cheaper than in situ concrete? On a building that repeats and whose design can be fixed early, it usually is, because the saving is in the repetition rather than in the material. On a one off shape, or a design that is still moving, it usually is not, and we will say so. ### How is a value engineering review priced? It is quoted against the drawings and the brief before work starts. Send the current set, the cost plan or tender breakdown and the programme, and the quote will say what the review covers.