In Southern California and Los Angeles, the post-war fashion for soft-story builds is becoming a concern for many city counselors. This type of construction looks great but may pose a risk to people living with seismic activity, to the extent that LA passed a city code requiring that these soft-story properties be remodeled to make them more effective. If you have been informed by inspectors that you need to have an earthquake retrofit company on your Los Angeles property, then you need to call someone you can trust to get the job done to a high level, so that you can pass a follow-up inspection from the city.
Is Your Home At Risk?
Many Los Angeles buildings have a soft story at the base of the property, which is a structure made from wooden columns with large gaps between, usually covered with a layer of plasterboard or similar in order to create a wall. This was an extremely popular way of putting up properties quickly, and if your home was built before 1978 then you may be in danger of the property collapsing during an earthquake. This is because the soft story allows greater movement of the building that is safe, leading to instability and eventual collapse. The building is inherently unstable, and only by using a steel frame to retrofit the soft story can you protect yourself from future earthquakes.
Protect Your Property From Earthquake Damage
There is no completely secure way to protect yourself from earthquake damage, but you can certainly improve the total stability of the building by retrofitting. Using these devices to prevent excessive lateral movement during seismic events will ensure that the building doesn’t collapse and can prevent more minor damage which would require extensive repairs in the future. The use of a steel frame is most common and means that most of the structure can be left in the same position. For more extensive work, perhaps where the lower floors are already damaged by past tremors, it may be necessary to add walls which have steel molded into the very center of the structure.
Find Out How To Ensure The Safety Of Your Property
When you know that you have a soft story at the base of your building, it is essential that you find a contractor to perform an earthquake retrofit company in Los Angeles as soon as possible. You can talk to Los Angeles Retrofit and Construction Inc. today, and we can help you to understand the options that are available to you when it comes to protecting your home. We will include the fact that any structures will need to be fireproofed and must pass an inspection before the work can be considered as complete. Find out more about how you can protect yourself by talking to our team about your requirements. You can ask any questions that you may have by using our fill-in online form, or you can talk directly to a member of staff by calling (818) 629-0923 now.
