BC Engineers buys assets of NW Roof Consultants

BC Engineers Inc., a Hayden, Idaho, structural engineering company, has purchased the assets of Northwest Roof Consultants Inc., of Coeur d'Alene, and has created a roof consulting division, says Jason Erickson, vice president of BC Engineers.

BC Engineers occupies 1,500 square feet of space at 8680 N. Wayne Drive in Hayden and employs seven people, including Erickson, President and CEO Brent Cornelison, and Chris Smith, former owner of Northwest Roof Consultants. Cornelison and Erickson are both engineers. The company has four other employees, including another engineer, a drafter, an office administrator, and an engineering intern from Washington State University.

Smith agreed to join the staff of BC Engineers and to continue working with the company for another two to five years as a lead consultant.

Both Smith and Erickson decline to disclose details of the purchase.

Erickson says that since Cornelison started BC Engineers in 2009, gross revenues have doubled. He says the business has seen substantial growth and expects more growth in 2014.

"We expect to see moderate growth this year, in the range of 10-20 percent, if the past is an indicator, and if things go as planned with our new roof consulting division," he says.

Erickson says the roof consulting work fits well with the company's structural design consulting.

"The same types of clients (architects, owners, and insurance carriers) that use us for structural work, also have needs in the areas of roof specification, quality assurance, leak detection, moisture surveys, etc., which our roof consulting division can now provide," he says.

The company expects the roof consulting work to be a growing part of its revenue, but structural design work remains its bread and butter, Erickson says.

The company's expertise includes engineering concrete, wood, and steel structures, including some custom homes but mostly commercial buildings, Erickson says. It has done forensic work for insurance companies for several years, including investigating insurance claims that involve roof-related damage, he says. It now provides commercial roof inspection services, cause-and-origin investigations, scope of repair documentation, and building heat loss analysis services.

"We plan to grow the roof consulting side of the business even more," Erickson says.

He says BC Engineers has done roof consulting for schools, universities, hospitals, and businesses here.

Erickson says the company provides permit-ready structural drawings and calculations for commercial and residential structures, forensic investigations, industrial steel structure design, and pole structure design. The company will continue to do structural and design consulting with architectural firms.

BC Engineers is license in eight states including Idaho, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Michigan.