Keeping Your Home Structurally Sound with Earthquake Retrofitting

earthquake retrofitting

Earthquake Retrofitting aka House Bolting is the process of attaching a house to its concrete foundation using foundation plates and anchor bolts. It’s a service that is extremely important in Southern California, and to Los Angeles in particular.

Why? Because Los Angeles and Southern California are some of the most seismically active regions in the world, which is why it’s crucial to invest in earthquake retrofitting to protect your loved ones and your home value in the event of a large earthquake.

That’s because most homes lack the necessary safeguards that protect your property from seismic damage. Simply put, earthquake retrofitting means Earthquake Hazard Reduction.

An earthquake retrofit for a wood frame structure addresses what is known as “The Earthquake Weakness,” which involves the attachments of your home to its foundation.

Earthquake retrofitting uses a series of connections including anchor bolts, shear paneling and framing anchors to help secure your home to its foundation in the event of seismic activity.

During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, thousands of unbolted homes were damaged or destroyed.

Foundation bolting (aka house bolting) is an easy, quick and inexpensive method to provide greater protection against the side-to-side and back-and-forth forces of an earthquake.

Even if your house has these features, they can wear out over time, leaving your foundation vulnerable to earthquake damage. Foundation deterioration can also cause a prior retrofit to no longer be effective.

Recent earthquakes have shown that if a building has weak cripple wall bracing or is unbolted, it may slide off its foundation even in moderate earthquakes. That’s because the up-and-down and side-to-side motion of an earthquake can shake an unbolted house right off its foundation.

Our Seismic Retrofitting experts have seen building’s cripple stud walls topple over, pushing buildings to collapse and slide. And in the event a building does collapse or slide, they can catch fire or need extensive repairs to restore occupancy requirements.

Julian Construction Inc. has specialized in foundation bolting projects in the greater Los Angeles area since 2000. If you have any concerns about the condition of your foundation, or have not had your foundation checked, call Julian Construction Inc. at 323-733-3377 for a comprehensive evaluation by one of our foundation experts.

We have inspected over 30,000 structures and continue to be the leader in the house bolting field.

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