Residential flooding makes up the lion’s share of what we call backyard jobs in the civil engineering business. Most engineering firms are not setup to do backyard jobs. Their fees are simply too high.

Melton Engineering is a small firm with a nonprofit philosophy. We specialize in many things with climate hydrology (flooding) and environmental issues being a primary focus.

The National Weather Service Says the 100-year storm is now the 25-year storm.  Over the last 30 years both droughts and floods have doubled in the U.S. Southeast.

In Central Texas, extreme rainfall events seem to have likely increased too. The National Climate Assessment  says that our most extreme one percent of rainfall events have increased by 16 percent.

In Austin’s Halloween floods in 2015, City Watershed Management staff say we had somewhere between a 1,700-year and 2,300-year storm.

The Harris County Flood Control District in Houston says Hurricane Harvey  was a 20,000-year storm.

If you are reading these pages, you have probably noticed. Now you have a flooding problem and need an affordable engineer. Melton Engineering Services Austin can help.

Residential Flooding Category One: Free Free — Call and talk. We have 36 years of engineering experience and founded Melton Engineering in 2001. Our rates are reduced for single family residential clients. It could be that your problem can even be solved over the phone.

Category Two – Arm Waving: $350
We’ll come out and see what’s going on and suggest solutions on site. Often there are one or two obvious things that can really make a difference like gutters or that a tree has grown up in the drainage path in the side yard.

Category Three – Site Visit and Engineer’s Letter: $500
Most residential flooding issues will fall into this category. This includes a phone call to get background, a look at The Google satellite and street view, Austin City Topography, a check of Flood Pro and a site visit. Then we will write you an engineer’s letter with our observations and suggestions. If we need to survey a little, the fee is $750.

Category Four – Site Visit, Surveying, Engineer’s Letter and Sketch: $1,200 +
This category will get you a simple construction drawing of our suggested solutions to go along with our engineer’s letter. More involved solutions will be more expensive. We will work this out during the site visit.

Category Five – Everything Else: $1,500 and Up
This category is for precipitation analysis via Wunderground’s PWS Network (Private Weather System), advanced hydrologic design, working with attorneys, bigger projects, expert testimony, permit work with the City, County, Army Corp of Engineers, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, red tag work, commercial work, modeling, flood studies, etc.