Outsourcing engineering under your own letterhead is one of the highest-leverage moves an architecture firm or GC can make — and one of the easiest to get wrong. The wrong partner does not just cost you the fee difference. It costs you schedule, plan-check cycles, and, in the worst cases we have been called in to rescue, your client's confidence.
Whether you are evaluating Torch or anyone else, here is the checklist we wish more firms used.
Licensed where YOU build, not where they sit
An engineering partner licensed in two states is not a national partner. Ask for the actual license list and verify a sample against state board rosters. For multi-state developers, every project that lands in a state your partner cannot stamp is a project you are re-sourcing mid-stream. Torch-backed work draws on licensed PEs in 49 states — ask any candidate for the same receipts.
Real E&O insurance, in writing
Professional liability insurance is non-negotiable. Ask for the certificate, check the limits, and confirm it covers the disciplines they will stamp for you. A partner who hesitates here is telling you everything.
Plan-check corrections are the real SLA
Everyone promises fast drawings. The metric that actually determines your schedule is correction turnaround: when the AHJ kicks back comments, how fast does the revised set come back? Ask for their average correction-cycle time, not just their initial delivery time. A partner that delivers in two weeks and corrects in six is slower than one that delivers in three and corrects in three days.
White-label discipline is a system, not a promise
"We will never contact your client" is easy to say. Ask how it is enforced: dedicated project emails, your title block standards, NDAs that actually name your clients, and a rule that all communication routes through you. Then check references specifically on this point.
You should talk to an engineer, not a project manager
The person answering your technical questions should be the person doing the engineering — or directly supervising it. Layers of account management between you and the engineer of record is where nuance dies and RFIs multiply. Ask who your day-to-day technical contact will be, and what their credentials are.
Calc packages that survive plan check
Ask to see a redacted calculation package. Reviewers read them; sloppy calc packages generate corrections that have nothing to do with the design's quality. Organized, referenced, complete calculations are the clearest signal of how your submittals will go.
Pricing you can quote from
If you cannot get a firm fee from your partner within 24 hours, you cannot bid work confidently. The partner's quoting speed is your quoting speed. Vague hourly ranges with no cap are a red flag — you need numbers you can put in front of your client.
Capacity you can verify
Ask what happens when you send three projects at once. A two-person shop may be excellent and may also be one sick week away from missing your deadline. Understand the bench: how many PEs, how many designers, and what their current backlog looks like.
The right white-label partner should feel like an in-house engineering department that happens to invoice you — invisible to your clients, accountable to your schedule, and boring in all the ways that matter. Evaluate against this list, and the choice usually makes itself.