A multiple story building where one or more floors where a shear wall would normally be required for stability incase of an earthquake. Due to this lack of stability, soft story structures are really dangerous during an earthquake and by using this program you are investing your time and money to decrease any risk of injury, loss of life, or damage to property that may come from an earthquake.
Due to the many little factors with retrofit work on a soft story building that can affect the cost of your project, it is difficult to set a standard price. However, our experienced team is ready to put our time and effort into helping you save on your retrofit project.
In the chances that your building is affected then you should have received a notice from the city. If the notice has been received then you will need to hire an engineer that can help determine if retrofit work is needed, if so what work will need to be provided.
To recover a portion of the cost for the retrofit, many building owners may increase the rent.
The City of Los Angeles passed The Ordinance in 2015, which required the retrofit of “all non-ductile concrete buildings and pre-1978 wood-frame soft-story buildings.” The overall goal is to reduce these dangerous structural issues and improve the performance of these buildings during earthquakes.
To help strengthen the structure of their buildings so they can withstand the effects of an earthquake, the mandatory retrofit program is a helpful sketch for all property owners to follow