Melbourne
Structural Engineering For Melbourne’s Existing Buildings.
Sheer Force Engineering works from Flinders Street in the Melbourne CBD, a short walk from many of the buildings we are asked to investigate, strengthen and adapt.
Our specialisation is structures that already exist: heritage fabric, warehouses and factories being reworked, apartment buildings with defects, and commercial buildings being asked to carry more than they were designed for.
We have spent years reading Melbourne’s building stock — bluestone footings, solid masonry, early reinforced concrete, post-war frames — and interpreting the drawings, and the missing drawings, that come with them.
- Melbourne office
- Level 4 / 116 Flinders StreetMelbourne VIC 3000
- Telephone
- +61 3 9647 2227
Servicing Melbourne, Greater Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the wider Victoria region.
Structural investigations and condition reports
On-site assessment of cracking, movement, settlement, water ingress and deterioration, with a clear position on what requires action, what requires monitoring and what can be managed with confidence.
Heritage structures
Victorian and Federation-era masonry, bluestone, timber and cast iron, assessed so change can be made without losing what gives the building its significance.
Adaptive reuse and added capacity
Warehouses, factories and offices reworked for new uses, including added levels and increased floor loads, grounded in what the existing structure can actually carry.
Forensic engineering and expert opinion
Independent investigation and evidence for owners, owners corporations, insurers and legal teams where the cause of a defect or failure is disputed.
Remediation and strengthening
Concrete deterioration, corrosion, façade and balcony defects, and targeted strengthening designed around access, occupancy and staging constraints.
Temporary works and demolition engineering
Propping, façade retention and staged demolition for tight inner-Melbourne sites where neighbouring buildings and street access govern the method.
Melbourne’s inner suburbs are dense with buildings designed under codes and assumptions that no longer apply. Load paths were often documented lightly or not at all, and later alterations were rarely recorded.
That gap between what a drawing shows and what the building is actually doing is where most risk sits on an existing-building project — and where careful investigation saves far more than it costs.
From the Melbourne office we service Greater Melbourne and travel for Victorian regional projects, including Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, where the building warrants attendance.
We work within the National Construction Code and the relevant Australian Standards, and coordinate with heritage advisors, councils and building surveyors where approvals depend on a well-evidenced structural argument.
Have a Melbourne building we should look at?
Tell us about the building, the site and the question you need answered. If it is standing, we are interested.
Other offices: Sydney