Peer Review

 Design professionals may include some form of peer review as part of their design

 services. Peer review is the review, by another individual of similar credentials, of one’s

 work that has been performed for a given project. Design assumptions, criteria,

 calculations, drawings, etc. may be reviewed during the process. No one is perfect and

 mistakes can be made. The peer review process attempts to weed out these mistakes

 prior to beginning construction. This is the best time to catch mistakes, as they are the

 least expensive to fix at this point.

 Don’t count on building department plan checkers or inspectors to catch mistakes or

 Building department plan checkers may or may not be licensed. They often have a large

 workload with deadlines to meet. Sometimes they may not even review the plans or

 calculations for your project at all, though they are supposed to. Inspectors are typically

 not licensed, and cannot be expected to understand or check design intent. They are

 only looking for construction that is in line with the approved plan set and / or the

 building code. They have a busy schedule and only a very short period of time to get up

 to speed on your project during their inspections. It is common for an inspector to miss

 deficient construction practices in the field.

 Questions to ask a potential design professional include:

1. Is peer review included with your services?
2. What is the cost of the peer review?
3. What items are included in the peer review?

 In the NorthStar Engineering Building Design Department, we provide in-house peer

 review services on nearly all of our projects. Our licensed engineers allow us to

 complete this process quickly and efficiently. The cost of peer review is typically

 included in the design services proposal and depends upon the complexity of the

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