Protecting Your Home: What About Earthquakes?

Long Beach house built 1922

Some aspects of climate change have brought more catastrophic events to different regions--in California earthquakes especially have long been present due to geologic features, such as the San Andreas Fault. Native Californians or others who've spent most of their lives in this state may have experienced past quakes to one degree or another:  further in the past was the 1933 Long Beach quake, more recently were Sylmar/San Fernando and the fall of the Oakland Bridge (Loma Prieta).  There have been many earthquakes in California, see the list at the link.   The major ones can be devastating, causing loss of life, displacement of homes, disruption in lives.  

There are things that property owners can do to at least minimize impact to themselves, their families, or their tenants.  One is obtaining earthquake insurance, and another is preparing your home's physical structure doing some simple things: foundation bolts and plywood bracing for certain older homes with cripple walls (when you bought your house the seller should have provided you with a booklet concerning this)--for a more extensive strengthening an owner might want to do a retrofit.  There may also be a grant available for such help--find out more at the California Earthquake Authority site for units over garages, mobile homes, hillside houses, post and pier homes, etc.  

There are over 500 active faults in California and most Californians live within 30 miles of an active fault. Based on a study in 2014, there is a 75% likelihood of one or more magnitude 7.0+ quakes striking Southern California in the next 30 years.

Homeowners can add earthquake coverage to their home insurance, and condominium owners, especially those in a multiunit multifamily style homeowners association which does not have a master earthquake coverage, may purchase their own coverage for the interior of their unit--it not only gives replacement value but can also provide living expenses for some time into the future.

Communities that have been struck by disasters can recover more fully and completely when its members have had the financial means to do so..... If you're a homeowner it would be advisable to take steps to protect your home. Don't be surprised if you live in  an older home (built before 1933) and your neighbors tell you their house isn't bolted, or they don't know for sure -- just think about how an unbolted house can jump off the foundations.  If you can't pay for those repairs yourself, what are you going to do? Here is a link to brace and bolt grants.

Julia Huntsman, REALTOR, Broker | www.juliahuntsman.com | 562-896-2609 | California Lic. #01188996

California Retrofits for Earthquake May Save A Lot of Grief

Foundation

For 1000 owners living in certain Southern and Northern California zip codes including Los Angeles, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and elsewhere, money was available as of January 1 for grants up to $3,000 for earthquake retrofit. 

Although those owners have probably all been selected by now, basic retrofits are not costly overall and can be done by following the idea in the illustrations.  By doing simple bolting and bracing, a lot of damage can be prevented and may even cost less than $3000 depending on who performs the work or the construction issues of the foundation and walls.  Cripple walls are not present in all homes, but if they are, and the house is not bolted to the foundation (pre-1933 homes were not required to be), then a retrofit ought to be of special interest.

Crawl Space view

Since Long Beach is a larger city than Pasadena, and was developed in the same eras, it seems quite an oversight that it was not included in this program.


Earthquake Brace and Bolt, site for the California Residential Mitigation Program, explains more, and also provides FAQs and a search engine for licensed contractors.

Why should this be of so much importance? "California has two-thirds of the nation's earthquake risk. Some 2,000 known faults crisscross the state, producing an average of 102 earthquakes a day – more than 37,000 a year. Certain structures that lack adequate bolting and bracing are more vulnerable to earthquake damage. Older houses are often not bolted to their foundations and lack bracing on the wood framed exterior walls enclosing the crawl space. Houses without adequate bolting and bracing are prone to sliding or toppling off their foundation during an earthquake. This type of serious damage can be prevented with proper seismic retrofit of the crawl space."

What can you expect if you buy a pre-1933 home in Southern California?  You may very well find that no retrofit has been done, and it's not something that is ordinarily asked of the seller during escrow because it's not a "repair".  Such work is usually up to the new owner of the property, and is well worth the expense.   Why didn't the previous owner do that work? That's the topic of another post.

See http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-quake-retrofit-grants-expanding-to-more-california-single-family-homes-20151118-story.html