This is not a design check

Design checking under the legislation

A separate role tied to a qualification, with defined formal requirements and a declaration. Within a defined range the legislation makes it mandatory. The design checker.

Whoever performs it declares on the basis of their own qualification — and the form of the declaration is fixed too.

Plan review

A professional opinion, free in form. It can be asked for at any time, at any stage, with no legal obligation behind it.

What it gives: a written summary of what is sound and what is not, ranked by risk.

Why we insist on the difference

Because the two are often confused, and that leads to misunderstanding:

• if the authority asks for a design check, our plan review will not do,
• but if somebody needs a professional opinion, they do not have to wait for legislation to make it compulsory.

Which is needed when

Design checking

Where the legislation prescribes it — tied to the significance of the structure or the works, and the range changes from time to time.

Plan review

When you want to know whether the design is sound. Typically:

• you received another practice’s design,
• you are pricing it and there is a lot of steel in it,
• something clashes during construction,
• or you simply want a second opinion.

The two together

Sometimes a plan review turns up something that makes it worth bringing in a design checker afterwards. We say so when that happens. When a design checker is needed.

The point

Design checking is a legal role, plan review a professional service. Neither replaces the other — but the second can be asked for at any time.