About ECD: Engineers and Builders in One Bellevue Office

ECD — Engineering Contracting Design is a Bellevue design-build general contractor with a licensed structural engineer on staff. The engineer who sizes your beam and the contractor who installs it work for the same company, answer to the same contract and are named below with their license numbers.

Why the company is built this way

Structural remodels fail in the gap between disciplines

When a homeowner wants a wall removed, the usual path runs through three separate businesses: someone draws the new layout, an engineer is hired to make it stand up, and a contractor is hired to build it. Each one is competent. The trouble is the space between them, where a beam size changes after the bid, a post lands where the drawing showed a doorway, or a footing nobody priced appears in the plan review comments.

ECD closes that space by putting all three under one roof. Our engineer is at the first site visit. Our estimator prices the engineer's actual solution, not a guess. Our crew lead can walk into the office and ask the person who wrote the calculation what a detail means.

ECD started in 2014, after Daniel R. Whitcomb and Marcus T. Alvarado had spent two years on the same Eastside projects from opposite sides of the table — the engineer asking why a beam had been installed differently than drawn, the builder asking why the drawing called for a beam that would not fit the room. They decided that argument belonged inside one company, where it could be settled before the price went out. The office on NE 8th opened that autumn with four people and one van.

Beam design check drawing with load, shear and moment diagrams

The people who sign the work

Who reviews your drawings and runs your job

Every service page on this site carries a "Reviewed by" line that links here. These are the two people accountable for the engineering and the construction.

Structural Engineer of Record

Daniel R. Whitcomb, PE

License: Professional Engineer, Washington 48217
Education: BS and MS in Civil Engineering, University of Washington
Practice: 18 years in residential and light commercial structural design

Visits every project before design starts, writes the structural calculations and drawings, responds to plan review comments on structure and inspects critical framing and foundation work before it is covered.

Daniel grew up on his father’s framing crew outside Spokane and went into engineering because he wanted to know why the beams were the sizes they were. He spent nine years in a commercial firm designing schools and light industrial buildings before moving to houses, where the structure is older, the drawings are thinner and most of the answers are found in a crawlspace with a flashlight. He is in one most weeks.

Verify a Washington PE license with the Washington State Department of Licensing.

General Contractor & Project Lead

Marcus T. Alvarado

Registration: Washington L&I General Contractor ECDENGC812K4
Trade: Framing and finish carpentry · OSHA 30-hour · EPA Lead-Safe (RRP) certified
Practice: 22 years running remodels and additions on the Eastside

Owns the schedule, the budget and the crew. Prepares the construction estimate from the engineer's drawings, sequences trades, manages inspections and is your single point of contact from contract to final.

Marcus started as a finish carpenter in Bellevue in 2003 and has run remodels on the Eastside ever since. He cares most about the parts nobody photographs: a framing layout the electrician can actually work in, a site swept before the crew leaves, and a client who knows on Friday what is happening on Monday.

Verify contractor registration, bond and insurance with WA L&I.

Licenses, bond and insurance

Coverage you can check before you sign

Washington requires contractors to be registered with the Department of Labor & Industries, carry a bond and hold general liability insurance. Structural engineers must be licensed by the state. You can confirm each item below yourself; we encourage it.

A certificate of insurance naming you as certificate holder is part of every ECD contract.

Item	Detail
Contractor registration	WA L&I ECDENGC812K4
Contractor bond	On file with WA L&I
General liability	Cascade Mutual Insurance, $2,000,000 per occurrence / $4,000,000 aggregate
Workers' compensation	Washington State Fund through L&I
Professional engineer	Daniel R. Whitcomb, WA PE 48217
Professional liability	Berkley Design Professional, $1,000,000 per claim
Business license	City of Bellevue BU-04471-2019

How we work with you

Four commitments in every ECD contract

Engineering before price

We do not quote structural work from a photo. The engineer sees the house first, so the number you get reflects what the structure actually needs.

Permits on everything that needs one

Structural changes, additions and ADUs are permitted. We pull the permit in our name and handle every inspection.

Written change orders

If something hidden in a wall changes the scope, you see the reason, the engineering response and the price in writing before work continues.

One point of contact

Your project lead answers for design, engineering and construction. You never chase three companies for one answer.

On site

The office and the crews

Engineer reviewing framing before cover inspection

Our design-build process Completed projects Client reviews Our Bellevue office

Free estimate · Bellevue office

Talk to the engineer before you commit to a plan

A site visit, a scope conversation and a written budget range, at no cost.

Get a Free Estimate Call (425) 519-9942