Because we are in a historic district we are required to obtain a ridiculous amount of documentation for any kind of work to the outside of our property. We reached out to Scott to assist in developing plans to provide to the city to get the new deck permitted. He was extremely helpful, provided a wealth of information, and we felt that he truly had our best interest in mind. While we didn't end up using his service at this time, due to a plethora of reasons, in the future we will definitely reach out if a similar service is needed. Thank you, Scott, for all the help! read more

Reached out to him to see what service he provides and if he would be a good fit to design the removal of our load bearing wall / a beam to replace it. He never returned the phone call and just texted to say that he couldn't answer any questions without a $1600 site visit. Not even a call to discuss what services he provided and what the $1600 would include. I found another engineering / design company (Reverence Engineering) who called me back immediately. The owner spent 45 minutes on the phone with me teaching me about the process of permitting and what a site visit would look like. Needless to say, I went with reverence engineering. read more

I'm a REALTOR. On a home inspection, a 12 foot long horizontal crack was discovered in the perimeter wall of the foundation and it was recommended to call a structural engineer. Obviously, everyone was nervous that this was going to be costly and difficult to remedy. I called several structural engineers. I was very happy after speaking with Scott Larson. He answered all our questions, his price was affordable, and he had upcoming availability. On the day of the inspection, he spent an hour completing the inspection, explaining his findings, and writing up his notes. Fortunately, he concluded that it was not a structural concern. Everyone involved was pleased with Scott's expertise, communication, professionalism. I highly recommend Scott Larson and AAA Structural Engineering. read more

After having Mr. Scott Larson over to examine a porch roof separating from my brother's 93 year old craftsman home I'm definitely going to keep the 5-star review string going for this FINE firm. In 4 words: Scott is absolutely incredible. (I've posted the resume off his website at end of my review. Basically we started noticing cracking of a front porch roof pillar base. After asking contractors what they "thought" was wrong and getting quotes ranging from a $400 aesthetic job to a $2 to 4K pillar base renovation; decided the charges of a PROFESSIONAL structural engineer was the best $$ we could spend. NO, such expertise does not come cheap, but with so much uncertainly on what to do / which contractor to beleive were we ever satisfied with this INVESTMENT. As others state, Scott is an extremely likeable & humble guy for being as damn smart as he obviously is. Even though this call was for "only" a porch column, he made a TOTAL evaluation of our property including: crawling INTO the underhome crawl space (yuck !), looking in semi-attic and then a total unit walk-around to see if any major foundation or other issues were causing the porch & columns to separate. Bottom line was that the home's foundation and floor/ceiling/roof supports are sound. The porch unit is built separate from the home and we can now deal with contractors from a powerful advantage of knowing EXACTLY what is needed by Scott's analysis -- and immediately rule out any unqualified, erroneous or dishonest repair bids. While this review is obviously for a very specialized service not everyone may need to read; the costs at stake are SO much more involved than the burger, burrito or bar reviews many Yelpers dedicate themselves to. ========================================== Scott Larson: A licensed civil engineer in Arizona and California and a licensed structural engineer in California, Scott Larson has been practicing engineering since 1983. He started as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer for the US Navy, earning his master's degree in structural engineering at UC Berkeley while on active duty. Since 1995, he has been in private industry, providing engineering services mainly in Orange County and San Diego County. Scott's experience spans over 20 years and includes all aspects of grading, drainage, construction materials and soils testing, and structural engineering. His clients have ranged from home owners to major commercial concerns and public agencies. Moreover, he has worked with a wide variety of professionals in related disicplines. He can bring them on board as required to provide a comprehensive design for your project needs. read more

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AAA Engineering and Scott Larson: first-rate in every respect-- We consulted with Scott Larson about doing an earthquake retrofit on our 1909 house. Mr. Larson did a site visit and spent more than 2 hours carefully looking at details of the house. We discussed our goals and what level of seismic preparedness we were trying to achieve. He then did various preliminary research steps including checking the building permit records for the house. He put together a very informative proposal outlining the results of the research and the services he could provide if we hired him to design the retrofit. Ultimately we decided not to pursue the retrofit. In our case, it appeared that a brace and bolt retrofit would require replacing a lot of the foundation and that was more "surgery" on the house than we wanted to under take. We felt that Scott Larson did an excellent job of helping us understand our options. In all our interactions he was professional, diligent, personable, thorough, and courteous. He is careful not to overstate potential benefits, and not to underestimate potential difficulties and costs. His work speaks of integrity. Highly recommended. read more

Scott did a great job investigating the potential for removing walls in the beach house I purchased in Imperial Beach. He was extremely professional , very thorough, and super nice guy also. He went above and beyond my expectations. read more

AAA Structural Engineering - Structural Engineers Near Me - Lakeside, California

We retained Mr. Larson's services to examine a house in escrow. The house had fallen out of escrow once before due to the previous buyer's concerns about the hillside foundation. Mr. Larson was extremely professional, thorough, and detailed in his explanations both throughout the inspection and in his conclusions. His credentials and level of experience are also impeccable. The expertise that he brought to bear gave us the confidence to proceed. I highly recommend his services. read more

We are selling our home in Santee and we wanted a structure and foundation assessment. Scott was very professional and informative. He took his time, explained along the way, and gave us a positive report. This gave us peace of mind about selling our home. I would highly recommend Scott to any of my Santee neighbors and in the San Diego community. I too agree, money well spent. Thank you Scott! read more

Scott Larson is really an amazing person. He was recommended to me by one of his associates in a similar field of profession. I spoke to Scott and immediately found him to be very friendly, professional, clearly very experienced, and most importantly, straight-forward ! I really appreciate his honest and useful advices. Due to his busy schedule, I won't be able to engage him this time for my project, but I would definitely come back and ask him again for my next project. read more

I had the pleasure to consult about a project with Mr. Scott Larson. He provided detailed and helpful analysis after carefully assessing the situation. He is very honest, knowledgeable, thorough, and patient. I am grateful for his expertise and insights. read more

Excellent service. Scott provided a very thorough and detailed explanation of services to be rendered and performed the design work exactly according to this schedule. He conducted a through and detailed analysis of our retrofit project and provided us with complete and high-quality plans of his design solution. Very happy with his attention to detail and commitment to meeting our expectations. read more

Very nice guy and very thorough! I really felt comfortable with his knowledge and what he was telling me. As a Realtor, it is good to know that I can count on Scott to help with such issues in the home buying process. read more

I hired Scott Larson of AAA Structural Engineering to come out and give an assessment of my 1926 Craftsman home in Normal Heights. Scott was extremely professional, kind, helpful, and forthright. He explained what he was seeing in a clear and plain manner and he was careful that the terms he chose were easily understandable. As it turned out, the condition of my foundation was not as bad as I thought and he explained exactly the reasons why. In addition, he reassured me that he was providing a fair, unbiased opinion of the structural integrity of my house, which was exactly what I was looking for. After the visit, he continued to take my questions via phone and always had time for them - even on a Saturday. He always answered me fully and completely, without ever seeming rushed or inconvenienced. In the end, I was extremely satisfied both with the accuracy of his report and the way he conducted himself, and I feel confident that I would contact him again in the future should the need arise for a reliable, straightforward, courteous, and knowledgeable structural engineer. read more

We had Scott do a structure and foundation assessment on a house we are buying. Scott was very thorough. Scott suggested I follow along as he did his thing. Extremely informative. Money well spent. read more

Scott is the best in the business, very knowledgeable and professional at what he does. He helped with our home and we couldn't be happier. He is also responsible for the wonderful reconstruction of the local Lindo lake tennis courts and did a fantastic job. Highly recommended! read more

worth the money. i found him to be experienced & extremely thorough . he will go to the ends of the earth to fully examine your structure . he is pleasant/cool and very professional. we were lucky to be able to hire him . the ultimate result was a less expensive fix which is holding up just fine read more

I AM VERY GRATEFUL FOR THIS MAN, Mr. Scott Larson, and his kind and caring manner to an elderly home owner, though he is a highly qualified Civil Engineer and Structural licensed both in California and Arizona, and has done work for large companies such as SDGE and the military. He even took the time and had the patience to explain things in a way so even I could understand them. My home in the noted San Diego's Talmadge Park area was built in the early '60's and prone to many cracks and foundation problems because of the poor soil quality in the area which he already had prior knowledge of. But Mr. Larson's obvious expertise and experienced background was most assuring, as well as his professional appearance and manner. Also his detailed inspection included the attic and crawl space below the house with the use of his precision measuring instruments as well contributing to a highly reliable report so I could with confidence proceed with any needed work to be done. Again I am grateful, and would highly recommend him. read more

We were concerned about a slight sag in one part of the floor in our almost 75 year old home. Scott did a thorough inspection of the attic and crawl space. A joist had been cut and some blocking beams had been damaged in the process of removing some old floor furnaces causing the slight movement. Adding some blocking should fix the problem according to Scott. The fee for the inspection was well worth the peace of mind as well as suggesting a solution. read more