Cornell Engineers provides structural engineering advice for existing buildings, damage investigations, cracking and movement, insurance matters, repairs and selected structural projects across Brisbane. Our Brisbane office is based in Hendra and we regularly inspect houses, commercial buildings and other structures throughout Brisbane and South East Queensland. We are particularly well suited to situations where the […]
Category: Cornell Engineers News & Insights
News, interviews, observations and commentary from Cornell Engineers. Matthew Cornell shares practical engineering insights, lessons from the construction industry, professional opinions and updates from our structural engineering consultancy.
I’m Matt Cornell, a structural engineer (RPEQ 06598) and Director of Cornell Engineers in Brisbane. I’ve been working as a structural engineer for more than 30 years and started Cornell Engineers in 2003. Today, most of my work starts when something has gone wrong with a building: a crack that keeps growing, a floor that’s […]
TranscriptHere is the timestamped transcript, broken down into chapters based on the discussion topics. Chapter 1: Introduction & Technical Difficulties (00:00 – 01:50) Matt: G’day, this is Matt Cornell, and I really apologise. We’ve just started our video, and I got 14 minutes in to discover that you couldn’t hear a thing I was saying, […]
Cyclone Alfred is Coming – But Are Brisbane Homes Ready? A leading structural engineer in Brisbane has warned homeowners that instead of stripping supermarket shelves of bread and water, they should be flocking to hardware stores to buy framing anchors, roofing screws, and stump tie-down brackets. Brisbane hasn’t seen a wind event like this in […]
If structural engineers designed buildings the way other engineers approach their fields, the world would be an absolute disaster! 🌍🔥 Let’s take a look at what would happen if we applied their “design principles” to structures: 🔹 Civil Engineering → Your house would be perfectly functional—until a storm hits ⛈️💦… then your lounge room would […]
During construction: take lots of photos. Even if you don’t know what you’re taking photos of. Time and time again, photos taken during the construction of houses, pools, sheds, footings and skyscrapers have helped forensic engineers see through dirt, concrete, plasterboard and masonry. They have helped electricians, plumbers and carpenters make more succinct alterations to […]
Video Subtitles I was asked the other day what’s my number one piece of advice for someone who is having a house being built right now and my answer would be to take lots of photos all the way through construction even if you don’t know what you’re taking photos of. Now, why is that? If something goes wrong […]
We just signed the Form 16 inspection certificate for our pool pergola project at Morningside. Check out our video tour, project team and construction photos.
Cornell Engineers was engaged by Brisbane Builder Rigoli Constructions to design the footings and slab for this massive house at Cedar Creek. With 657m2 of single level slab on ground including 300m2 of verandah, this house is BIG!
So if you’re in the building industry in Australia you’ve probably noticed by now that the sizing and spacing of structural members aren’t exactly metric. I mean, we’re working in millimetres and all but have you noticed we still bow to imperial measurements in nearly all structural framing? Here is how pervasive the imperial system […]
Every week Google sends me a Google Alert for the search term “structural engineer” with the latest news articles featuring our world of structural engineering. Let’s go through the articles together and see what’s happening in our local world of structural engineering. Links are below the video.
Google sends me a weekly alert for the term structural engineering in the news for the week. Here’s my take on the term “structural engineer” in the news this week. I have to say, I’m not super-proud of the number of collapses, evacuations and problems relating to structural engineering this week. Not a very good […]
A big thank you to Michael from Hanson Heidelberg Cement Group for taking our engineers Jed, Rachel, Ben and David for a tour of the Hanson concrete batching plant at Northgate.
Hi. This is Matt Cornell from Cornell Engineers. This is Barlee Cornell from my place and this is the Cornell Engineers Thursday morning briefing. Today is Anzac Day. We’ve paused to pay our respects to those who have fallen protecting our country we’d like to remember the Anzacs – would like to remember those who’ve […]
Cornell Engineers is super-proud to have been the engineers for St Lawrence State School’s Remembrance Day Memorial Wall. Remembrance Day has a special significance in 2018. Sunday, 11 November 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18).