A special inspection agency has no authority of its own. Everything a report asserts rests on who was licensed or certified to make that assertion, and on what the governing body permits them to sign for. So the credentials below are the substance of the service rather than decoration on it — and each one is verifiable with the body that issued it.
California licenses professional engineers as individuals, not as companies. A firm cannot hold a P.E. licence; it performs engineering work under the licence of a named engineer who takes professional responsibility for it. That engineer is the Responsible Engineer, and their judgement is what a report ultimately rests on.
It is worth knowing which name that is. A report signed under a named licence can be checked against the state board's register, and the person behind it can be asked about the work. An unnamed "engineering department" gives a reviewer nothing to check and no one to ask.
The firm's engineering work is performed under his California professional engineer licence. Engineering judgement on MEI's reports is attributable to him by name and verifiable with the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists.
A licensed professional engineer, and Vice President of the company. He oversees operations across the three offices, including how inspectors are assigned against a project programme.
Special inspection certifications are issued per discipline, not as a single general qualification. An inspector certified for reinforced concrete is not thereby certified for structural welding. Inspectors are assigned to the scopes their certifications actually cover.
International Code Council
ICC certifications are the ones building departments look for on a special inspection report. Our inspectors hold ICC certifications across reinforced concrete, structural masonry, structural steel and bolting, spray-applied fireproofing and related disciplines — each certification covering the specific scope it names, rather than one general qualification stretched across every trade.
American Concrete Institute
ACI certification covers the people who sample and test concrete, in the field and in the laboratory. It matters because a compressive strength result is only as good as the sampling and curing behind it — an improperly made cylinder produces a number that looks valid and is not.
American Welding Society
The Certified Welding Inspector credential qualifies an inspector to judge welds against the governing welding code, including procedure and welder qualification review. Structural welding is inspected visually in every case, with volumetric methods added where the drawings or the code require them.
Division of the State Architect
California school and other public building work is reviewed by DSA, which sets its own requirements for who may inspect and how work is reported. DSA projects run to that programme rather than to the local building department alone.
A portable nuclear moisture-density gauge measures the compaction and water content of soil, aggregate base and asphalt in place, on site, in minutes. It does this with a sealed radioactive source, which is why it is the fastest way to release a lift of fill for the next stage of work — and why possessing and operating one is licensed.
MEI holds a radioactive materials licence issued by the California Department of Public Health for portable gauge operations. Gauge use is covered by that licence, by operator training, and by the transport and storage requirements that come with it.
MEI holds an active public works contractor registration with the California Department of Industrial Relations. That registration is a precondition for bidding or performing work on public works projects in California, alongside the certified payroll reporting those projects require.
Requirements beyond that differ between building departments and change over time. Tell us which jurisdiction is reviewing your project and we will confirm what applies before quoting.