Seismic Retrofitting Your Homes Foundation ( Yes I Mean Bolting It Down! )

Seismic retrofitting your foundation is crucial if you live in an earthquake-prone area. Here’s why it’s a smart investment:

1. Protect Your Home from Structural Damage

• Many older homes were not built to modern seismic codes and can suffer severe damage or even collapse during an earthquake. Retrofitting strengthens your foundation and connections to prevent shifting or cracking.

2. Enhance Safety for You and Your Family

• A stronger foundation means less risk of walls, roofs, or chimneys collapsing during a quake, reducing the chance of injury or entrapment.

3. Increase Property Value

• A retrofitted home is more attractive to buyers and insurers. It can boost resale value and make your home more marketable.

4. Lower Insurance Costs

• Some insurance companies offer discounts on earthquake insurance for retrofitted homes since they’re less likely to suffer severe damage.

5. Reduce Repair and Replacement Costs

• The cost of repairing earthquake damage can be far higher than the cost of retrofitting. Strengthening your foundation now can save you thousands later.

6. Stay in Your Home After a Quake

• If your home is severely damaged, you may be forced to relocate during repairs. A retrofitted home is more likely to remain livable after an earthquake.

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic, just listen to the rest of this podcast. Okay, everybody, I am here today with YC from SoCal seismic house bolting, and we're going to talk about why you should get your house retrofitted and what that means, especially if you know, if you're looking at a home to buy and it's an older building, let's say, Well, how old are buildings typically not bolted? What age it's a good question. I know, ultimately it depends on the builder, but I would say house needs to be bolted if it hasn't had any work since, you know, pre 1979 put it that way. Okay, pre 19 raise foundation. Okay, raise foundation. So raise Foundation, pre 1979 so it's safe to say that there's bolting in those homes, like from maybe 1930s onward. Yep, yep, correct. But how many correct the spacing the size, or spacing the size? So my understanding is around early 1930s is when bolting became mandatory. Anchor bolts. Yep, anchor bolts. But who? Who who implemented that was that the building was there. Suddenly, a building department code enforcement developed back in the 30s. It's interesting that you say that. I mean, I think that it was implemented by the question is, who really put who really installed them? You know, you'll go to these houses and you'll have a, you know, unframed garage, and there are no bolts there, yeah. So, I mean, it really depends on the builder at the time, right? Bob's builder, I always say Bob or Tom or Steve. They're all building a house right next to each other, and they're sitting there eating lunch one day, and one of them, hey, how many bolts you put in yours? I forgot my bolts. What's bolts? I got some washers, yeah. But anyway, it's, it's one of those things. And as as you know, in the early 1920s there was no anchor, right, right? 00, I go under houses weekly, and there's zero anchoring. And the thing is, John, I mean, let's say it had the anchors. Doesn't even matter anymore. That's the real thing. I mean, they're not going to be up to code in the first place. It could be rotted away. Oh, even if it, let's say it wasn't, and it was in perfect shape, it's still not up to code. The codes really changed after the 94 Northridge earthquake, right? You know, so, but it's better than nothing. You know, everybody says that, and I do agree. But at the same time, you know, when the Northridge earthquake hit, you know, you saw how those failed? Yeah, so I'm not going to say no, but I'm not going to say that it should just stay as is. And that's not a sales pitch. It's just, you know, we're going off of facts, sure. Well, everything you know over evolution is, uh, typically an improvement, yes, usually, we'll end it there, John, we'll end it right there. But, uh, yeah. So I've seen houses where you got an anchor in the corner, then you got 120 feet away, yeah. So I'm gonna recommend, hey, you know what this bolting is really old, or it's, it's outdated. I recommend you contacting a seismic retrofitter, yep, and then come out and give you a quote, yeah, yeah. Now give me a off the top of your head, 1500 square foot house that needs anchoring. What are we talking how many? How much them? Wall foundation or cripple wall foundation? It would be cripple wall, Cripple wall. So average cripple wall foundation price is about 5500 to 6000 just around that range and a regular stem wall, 1500 square feet, you're looking at about 4500 Okay, all right, that's, that's, that's manageable, yeah, yeah. All right, that's not too bad, yeah. Okay, so we talked about, and never mind. Let me start again here, talking about the insurance part if you want. Yeah, we'll get to that. Okay, yeah. All right, so does the term retrofitting include both bolting and sheathing? Good question. So if you have a house that has a cripple wall and you just do the bolting but not the sheathing, you're not retrofitted, I said, because you have that seismic weakness in the cripple wall. All right, so let's clear up what a what a cripple wall is, yep. So listeners, yeah, Cripple wall is a miniature vertical stud wall that holds the weight of the home or on the perimeter of the home. It's called a cripple wall because during an earthquake, that ladder will load cripples. You need to have structural plywood and bracing and bolts on that crip wall or behind the crypt wall to secure it from crippling to the ground. But the difference between a Crip wall Foundation. The stem wall foundation would be, one has framing, and one doesn't make a difference. Gotcha. So we do have a photo here of that. Let's see it. The picture on the left is what it originally looked like. That looks like a 1920s house, yeah, around that time, yep, yep. Remember when. And then there was no anchoring there either correct. And on the right side, you'll see that now there's plywood on that wall. So the woods, the wood part, is the cripple wall. Yep, that's what yc is talking about, correct. And then right here and now, now that whole cripple wall has plywood covering it. So you can go ahead and explain from there, like, what you know, what's up with the holes in there? There, yeah. What kind of fasteners do you use? And where's the where's the anchor bolts? Good question. So the first question I actually have for you, John, is photo on the left, Cripple wall. Okay, when you have cripple wall failure, okay, so the cripple wall is sitting kind of like this, you know, if you have that failure, how does it fail? Would it go this way? Would it go this way? Oh, it typically go this way, lateral Yeah, which is correct. So a lot of people think it goes the other way. Well, I've seen that happen too. But that's not going to be from seismic activity. That's going to be from something else, most likely, yep. So when you have that lateral load, it's going to be usually from seismic activity, exactly how you set it. Ultimately, the one on the right, we have the cripple wall bracing and bolting. So the bracing is the cripple wall sheeting right on top. That's all the plywood, and the bolts are right there in the picture. That's the the bolting. So a lot of people just think, you put sheathing on and you leave, you have to have it actually anchored to the foundation, you know, through the sill plate, through the, you know, through the top plate, yeah, oh, I see. So the sheathing has to be anchored into the concrete too, not the concrete. It's nailed into the two by four vertical stuff, okay, the sill plate and the studs and the top plate, correct. And then the bolts go through the sill plate. Okay. The top plate has little brackets that go every 32 inches between every single joist. Got it kind of hard to see in this photo, but they're there little angle, angle brackets. And now, brackets, now, right down the picture, it says bolt and then brace, yep. So the bolts are hidden on the inside of that plywood. Correct, correct. It's not hidden inside of it's just behind it, between the studs. Okay, yeah, there's, there's spacing requirements. So for you know, a one story home, the retrofitting plates have to go every six feet. And for a two story home, they go every four Okay. And you know, that varies depending on our engineer. So they're all, you know, engineer plan sets this, you know, the spacing, the depth, it's, you know, it's the factors are, are based on the condition on site. Is foundation retrofitting, mandatory, doing a real estate transaction? No, it's considered an upgrade. It's not a mandatory, you know, repair. I wouldn't even consider it repair. It just that codes have changed. I think that a lot of people don't realize when it comes down to retrofitting is the insurance companies. You know, you're in California, you're an earthquake country. When it comes down to bracing and bolting, if you're not braced and bolted up to code, you're gonna have very, very high insurance premiums. And when I say insurance premium, I mean earthquake insurance premiums. So have that in mind, once you get it bolted, embraced, you know, your premiums will usually drop between 15 to 25% off. So it's a big number. Wow. So it's a good investment. It's a very good investment. You just have to remember one thing, and this is a little bit of a more technical aspect, the deductible could be really high. So, yeah, some people like that though. I'm talking like, Yeah, talk with your talk with your, your broker, and go from there. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting insurance Right, right? You know, have that in mind. I don't. I don't have earthquake insurance in my house, right? I had a bolted embrace. They wanted $110,000 deductible, right? But the point, the point I want to send home here to realtors. If you don't know this, you got to pay attention to this, because this is not required, correct? So you can't be haggling and fighting with the seller if you're the buyer's agent about, oh, this thing ain't anchored. But look, it's not, it's not a mandatory thing. It's a recommended thing. Yeah, really important to understand the difference there, and if potential home buyers are out there listening as well, yc is foundation retrofitting required for existing homeowners with raise foundations, it's not a requirement, no, it's considered an upgrade. And one of our inspection reports, we always separate the repairs from the retrofitting. Okay, where you can tell the difference, you know, what you ask for credit and what you kind of can't I see, right? So a repair is not a credit, but the retrofitting would be opposite. Repairs are going to be usually credited. Oh, okay, the retrofitting, they won't give a credit for, I thought you said the insurance gave you, they'll give you a discount. Oh, a discount, yeah, okay, got it. People think they'll like issue a check. They'll just lower your premiums. No check, no check. Sorry, John, we all like checks. I'm sure we do All right, so here's a question. Let's hear if a home has a foundation bolting already installed when it was constructed, do you still recommend a retrofit? Good question depends on what year was constructed. It was built pre 1979 it's not going to be up to code. We're going to definitely recommend retrofitting. Okay, if it's new construction, we're talking about 2018, 2019, 2020, you're gonna find the anchor bolts, the square washers. It's gonna be up to code. We're not gonna, we're not gonna have to go ahead and retrofit it. Okay, so couple. Here's a couple loose questions on that. Yeah, one time at band camp years ago, I'm just kidding. Anyway, I did a house I did a home inspection and a mold inspection, because I found a lot of mold there too, so I wanted going back there to do a clearance test for the mold. Okay? So while I was there, the realtor said, Hey, John, I got a question for you, though, what's up? Because, well, in your report, you said there was foundation bolting. I said, yeah, it goes but the i. Had the foundation guys come by look at those, the major repairs, and they said there wasn't any. I said, they said there wasn't any. I said, Okay, come here, right. Grab my flashlight. I'm looking through all the vents, all of the vent screens, and there was a bolt visible in just about every one of them. I said, those are your bolts. And he looked at me and goes, What the I'm like, they may have worded what they were saying wrong, right? I'm not calling them liars, but the bullets were there. Both were present. Bolts were right there. And he goes, enough said, so that can happen, yeah, yeah. And I think that the confusion there could have been when they said translation, yeah. I think it was a translation issue. I mean, they could have just said it's not up to code, and would have, you know, would have been correct, in a sense, depending on what year was built. I don't know. Do you remember what year was built? Yeah, that ad house was probably 1950 Okay, so it wasn't, I mean, not up to code at all. Right. So, okay, so, so as a home inspector, let me ask you this, yeah, what's your advice on this for me and any other home inspection who might be watching or listening? Now, if I just tell you what I just described, am I wrong? Good question by saying it's bolted, yeah, yeah. So the difference would be writing the verbiage incorrectly, and then we see this a lot, so we'll see a general inspection report, and they'll write bolts present, and that's it. That's what becomes an issue, because the homeowner comes up to us and says, Hey, so and so did the general inspection. Here's the report. Page 53 shows that there are bolts present. I look at the pictures, I look at the year the house was built, and automatically, I can tell it's not up to code. And what they want from us is to sign the inspection. Insurance form. We can't do that. So I would recommend, in that same section to include, you know, not up to current standards. Most people have our you know, well, they constructed the older standards, including seismic bolting and everything else I have. I have a blanket statement that says, any older house, what it's it's built to an older standard. Yeah, that covers everything that I'm talking about. And the thing is, John, the homeowners will call us back and say, Man, I can't believe the inspector did that. And I'm thinking he didn't do anything wrong. He's telling you that there are both present. Well, I wanted the insurance discount form. It doesn't work like that's not his scope of work. He's not here to call out code. So for all the inspectors out there listening, I would definitely recommend including that in there. A lot of people actually have our business card right there. Yeah, that way there are no there's extra, no confusion. You know, I gave you his business card. Call him up. Yeah. But you know the difference for the insurance is they're not going to give you a discount on a house that original construction bolts. It's just not going to work. Okay, you're too high risk to them. High risk. All right, so that's See, those are the very good conversations to have right there, because it's lost in translation. You can get confused. People don't understand where our job starts and ends, and it's called the scope of work, and they just don't get that. And I have to explain that a lot, and I don't mind explaining it, but when the same realtor calls me back again and again, she's not paying attention, I hear you. I hear you. So anyway, so good tips for home inspectors there and home buyers, if we recommend a foundation specialist, you call this guy, there you go. And he'll, he'll clarify. Well, take care. We're not code inspectors. That's right, not code inspections. Okay, I like to call you guys the messengers. The messengers, yeah, all right, you're just, you're there to give a message. Yeah, you're not making anything up. You're just telling them what they have. We're there to tell you the condition of the property that day, yep, and that is it. See you later, we're not going to tell you how much longer your water heater is going to last, or your your anchor bolts are going to last. Now, what's the correct term for bolting? Is it bolting? Is it anchoring? What is it good question, we, we, we're going to consider it bolting. Okay. You know, anchoring would be, you know, a term used back in the day, I would say very common. There's your house up anchoring the bolting. Usually when someone says it's ready than bolted or the bolting usually indicates it was a newer upgrade. So that's how I like to determine to differentiate the differences between the two. So YC was nice enough to bring his shoe box. That's right, he's a shoe shiner. Once I keep my snacks the secret door over here. So why didn't you paint this gray? All right, it's a good question. Everyone always asks me, I'm gonna paint this gray for you before you leave. Let's do it. I think I might have some gray paintings. Nice. So anyway, this here's an anchor plate, yep. All right. Now, how big do these bolts have to be good question. So depends on what our engineer calls out. The standard is five inches. That's a long bolt, yeah, half inch by five inches. So depends on the stories. How many stories the house has, the both sides will, you know, will change. But ultimately, that's, that's usually your standard. And I've seen a lot of companies, you know, try to go ahead and, you know, install these. I've never. Done it before and end up completely destroying the foundation. They over tighten them. Either they're too loose, they're sticking out. They can't get through the rebar. So now I've also seen these with threaded rod in a bolt. Is that wrong? It's just a different method of installation, so you can do it. Yep, okay, that's allowed. Okay? And up here, how long of these have to be, well, they're not gonna cross, usually the two by four. So they usually three four inches, Max. Okay, yeah, got it. Okay, yeah, two by fours, three and a half. Okay. So on top, we have flat washes. Let's talk about that. Yeah. So these are what we call standard square washers, okay? And this is a great visual aid for home inspectors, or homeowners in general. You were just mentioning earlier how you were able to inspect the anchor bolts from the ventilation screens, which is a great idea. But ultimately, if you go to a property and the original main home was an original construction build, but they had an addition at the rear of the residence, you would see the difference between anchor bolts. For instance, the rear of the residence would have the square washer. The new up to code locations, right? And then the, you know, the main house would have the standard circular washer. So yeah, and it's going to have a threaded rod coming through. These are actual bolts. Yep, there's exactly. That's the difference. So that's the difference, yep. So if it's up to code, it's going to have bolts, not threaded rod. No, it could have a threaded rod, John, but has to be a square washer. Oh, okay. So once again, the threaded rod is okay, correct. Okay, correct. But again, the spacing and the width of it, it varies when they installed. It depends on the year built. Does that make sense? Yes. So if it's a new construction, it's going to have, you know, a threaded rod, but it's going to have a square washer. So, okay, the biggest thing to remember is, if it has a square washer, it's 99% of that. I'm going to be up to code, gotcha, yeah, that's the main difference there. And the insurance companies, you know, when we depending on which one you guys use, you know, the homeowner uses, or the new buyer, they're going to want to see those square washers. So that's very important, okay, square washes. Square washers. Yep, it's the latest thing that's right? And then this, and this guy has to be, you know, spaced out, depending on how many stories the house is as well. So if it's a one story house, I need to beat every six feet, if it's a two story house, maybe every four but there are very, very specific requirements from the corners, from, you know, where sill plates, you know, but up to each other, and you know where the screens are. There's, there's a whole, whole section of requirements prior just installing these plates, you can't just do what you want. You have to follow. You gotta follow. You're never gonna pass any inspection just throwing them around. Now, let's talk about the city inspection here. They actually get under the house. Good question. A lot of people ask that question. So really depends on the city, and they're actually getting very smart now. So they do a lot of virtual inspections, where you have to film the house on the exterior, you have to crawl it, you have to measure everything on video certain certain counties, for instance, City of Pasadena, not only do they go ahead and inspect everything, which they should? They do a torque test on the bolts as well. So you have to have a deputy inspector. So depends on the city, but ultimately, you know, most cities will have someone go underneath and crawl the question, well, how far do they go? That's the thing. I haven't seen any city inspectors do anything but poke their head and get in the cup right back out and which is why they want the photographs and videos, because there are people that will just go and install, you know, I've been to several homes, several just by the access points, you'll find these. The rest of the house is all missing, yeah, it's, they just scam the homeowner. It's terrible. And the thing is, they don't realize this is, this is a safety reinforcement for earthquakes. This is not just a cosmetic. You know what I mean. This is, this is what's going to hold your house for an earthquake. So it's more than just scabbing the customer. It's, it's, it's a, really, yeah, it's a terrible thing. Now you're putting people at risk, right? Yeah, that's, that's crazy stuff. So, yeah, thanks for bringing the shoe box. Yeah, please paint it for me. I need to paint that place for people. Hey, looks great. Why is your, why is your foundation made out of wood. You gotta pick this also. So plate has to be pressure treated. Ah, I didn't want to carry on. I think it's time for a 2.0 here. The problem is, this thing is thrown around the truck. It's gonna have that torn I know. I'm not treating this thing like, you know, mate, you know what I might do. I might have to construct one of these for you, and just show people how to do it correctly. And then I just, I'll ship it to you. Yeah, maybe we should do that. Yeah, there's bolts coming out. We gotta tighten that. Okay, all right, I'll call the Deputy Inspector. Get any Fritos in there. Maybe you.