Your engineer stopped answering mid-build. How to change permitted plans anyway

South Carolina's engineering board has written guidelines for this situation. When the original engineer can no longer do the work, for reasons that include a terminated contract, a successor engineer may work on plans another engineer prepared. The successor takes full professional responsibility for what he seals, must document the calculations, site visits and research behind it, and must replace the original engineer's title block, seal and signature with his own. The plans do not have to be redrawn.

A narrower fix is also allowed. State regulation 49-207(C)(4) says any addition, deletion or other revision to sealed documents must carry the seal, signature and date of the engineer who made it. That engineer answers for the changed part, and the original engineer stays responsible for the rest, the board's guidelines say. A new engineer can therefore seal revised framing sheets without taking over the whole addition.

The city side has its own rules. On the City of Charleston's permit application, the applicant agrees that changing the plans after the permit is issued without the building official's approval is grounds for revoking the permit. Under the city's fee schedule, reviewing revised plans on a residential job costs $50 per trade discipline, plus added permit fees if the revision raises the construction cost.

The truss swap carries extra paperwork. Under the IRC, the building official has to receive and approve truss design drawings before the trusses go up, and the drawings must ship with the trusses. The post did not say how far the framing has gone or whether the trusses have been ordered.