One must start with a comprehensive survey of the land. It must be investigated for any possible sinks or difficult to remove buried items. Plans must be made for where and how the various utility and sewer lines will connect the building with the rest of the system and the roads or access ways must be planned.

Depending on the stability of the land and the type of structure to be created, calculations must be made to determine the load on the masonry and structural timbers that will bear the weight of the materials used. In a complex steel braced structure the strength of the foundation pilings and retaining walls must conform to Building Control standards for safety and durability. Adjustments will sometimes have to be made to fit the building's maintenance equipment into areas that are both accessible and structurally supported to bear the extra weight and stress.

Whether you are contemplating a simple beam structure or a vast industrial complex, the design must include adequate safety measures. All this must be calculated within the design drawings long before the first actual work is done on the location. Once the plans have been double-checked, the process goes toward acquiring all the proper application approvals from the Local Authority and the Planning and Building Commission. Here the plans and calculations for the building's structural engineering are reviewed once more to assure no potential dangers have been overlooked.

Not all structural engineering factors involve the building itself or its materials. A vital aspect of the overall construction process is to develop and maintain health and safety plans for the construction workers. However large or small, a building is a handmade artifact and the interwoven systems that bring all these elements together into a completed structure must mesh well or the resultant chaos could cause loss of both life and property.