Rachel Thorne
Managing Director, CEng
Structural lead with 30 years across towers, bridges, and heritage retrofit.
Our story
Founded on a duty to get it right
Solidframe Engineering was established in 1998 by two structural engineers who believed that good engineering is measured on site, not in a report. They had watched elegant designs fail buildability and budgets blow up on details that should have been resolved at the drawing board — and set out to do it differently.
From a two-person practice in Manchester we've grown to a team of more than fifty chartered and graduate engineers, technicians, and BIM specialists serving clients across the UK. We've kept the founding rule: a chartered engineer owns and signs every structure that leaves the office.
Today we advise developers, contractors, architects, local authorities, and estates teams — from a single-span footbridge to a forty-storey tower. What they share is a need for engineering they can build, defend, and trust.
Nearly three decades, measured in structures
1998Year founded
50+Engineers & technicians
740+Structures delivered
3UK offices
Leadership
Meet the engineers in charge
Chartered directors who stay technically hands-on and put their name to the structures we deliver.
Marcus Ade
Director, Civil Engineering
Drainage, highways, and infrastructure specialist; FICE and adoption expert.
Priya Nair
Director, MEP
Building-services engineer focused on low-carbon and net-zero design.
James Crowe
Head of BIM & Digital
Leads our federated modelling, clash detection, and digital-twin delivery.
Certifications & memberships
Accredited to standards you can verify
Our engineers are chartered and our processes are independently certified — so the assurance behind our signature is real, not rhetorical.
ICE
Institution of Civil Engineers
Chartered membership and CEng-registered engineers across our civil and structural teams.
IStructE
Institution of Structural Engineers
Structural design led and signed by Chartered Structural Engineers (MIStructE).
ISO 9001
Quality Management
Certified quality-management system governing design checking and document control.
ISO 14001
Environmental Management
Certified processes for managing the environmental impact of our work and our practice.
ISO 45001
Health & Safety
Occupational health-and-safety management embedded in our site and CDM duties.
BIM L2
BIM Level 2
Digital delivery to BIM Level 2 with structured information exchange and federated models.
Our values
The principles behind the signature
These aren't slogans on a wall — they're the standards that decide how we check, detail, and stand behind our work.
Safety is non-negotiable
Public safety governs every decision. If a margin is unclear, we resolve it — never assume it away.
Designed to be built
A drawing only counts when it works on site, so buildability sits at the heart of every scheme.
Evidence over assumption
Calculations, surveys, and checks back every claim. We show our working, every time.
Lower carbon by default
Material-efficient design and whole-life carbon assessment are built into how we engineer.
Straight talking
Clear advice in plain language — including the risks clients would rather not hear.
Reliable to the programme
We hit deadlines and approvals so the rest of the project team can rely on our deliverables.
Let's engineer something that lasts
Tell us about the structure in front of you. We'll bring the experience, the calculations, and the accountability to help you build it right.