Can civil engineers build houses?

[young]

They know everything about construction. Do they still need an architect?

[AviatorTom]

To build a house, you need to get a building permit from the local authorities, and that usually requires detailed structural drawings prepared by an architect or a licensed structural engineer. Once that happens, a civil engineer could physically build his own house, though most would work with building contractors with more experience.

A civil engineer would generally not be licensed to build someone else's house, or build for profit.

[bolverk]

Its usually the other way around it is the Architect that need the Civil Engineer, Architects come up with the ideas with the Civil Engineer making them into a form that can be built.

If a Civil Engineer builds a home they can and usually will use commercial techniques which will use steel and concrete and other materials which usually means the builds are faster compared to stick builds.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

My mom is a civil engineer. She often corrects the math the architects use to make the buildings they work on together. The architect is more or less the person that tries to make something look nice, the civil engineer is the one that’s called on to make sure that thing that looks nice actually lasts longer than an hour.

[LiZiqiLiZiqi]

If you are just talking, then no. But if you want to build a house, I think you need an architect.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Anyone can build a house, if a civil engineer (or anyone else) can build a house, that makes them an architect, even if it's not their official title. A civil engineer probably knows everything thats needed to build a house.

[genericname85]

you don't need an architect to build a house. you just need an engineer who is experienced with structurall stresses and material science.

[jahaims]

That would depend on the individuals skill set