After the big earthquake of 1994, city officials in Los Angeles conducted a major assessment of the structures that sustained the most damage. What they found was soft-story buildings are most susceptible to collapse during an earthquake. The city created a mandatory soft-story retrofit program that included apartments and office buildings that fall under the …

Pasadena Rolls Out Its Own Earthquake Ordinance for Soft-Story Buildings Read More »

At RetroFitting 360 we specialize in soft-story buildings. In our experience we have seen that not every design created is suitable for meeting the standards in the Los Angeles soft-story retrofit program. Property owners often send us their plans looking for a quote on what the construction cost will be. In most cases we have …

What is needed for a Complete Los Angeles Soft-Story Retrofit Read More »

The city of Los Angeles rolled out their mandatory soft-story retrofit program after the devastation of the earthquake of 1994. The two back-to-back quakes that rocked Ridgecrest was a rude reminder of why this program is necessary. An earthquake of this magnitude has not happened in Southern California since 1999. On Thursday, July 4th, the …

The Latest Earthquake Serves as a Reminder Why the Soft-Story Retrofit Program is Needed Read More »

When the city of Los Angeles created its soft-story retrofit program it was done with the intention to prevent loss of life in the event of an earthquake. Ordinances 183893 and 184081 were passed in 2015 and were crafted to keep soft-story apartment buildings from collapsing due to the shaking caused in a seismic event. …

Are the Soft-Story Retrofit Ordinances Enough to Protect My Building? Read More »

Recently the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) Convention took place in Palm Desert, California. The SEAOC is the leading association for professional engineers both civil and structural. This organization meets to create guidelines for engineering projects that are used by cities across the country. This year’s convention focused entirely on seismic retrofitting. The Los …

How the Tougher 2019 Seismic Ordinances can Affect Your Soft-Story Retrofit Read More »

Most Los Angeles landlords and building owners are aware of the Los Angeles soft-story retrofit ordinances. If you don’t know, two building policies were approved by the city council in 2015 that affect soft-story buildings. Right after the new policies were approved the Los Angeles soft-story retrofitting program was announced. The idea behind is to …

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR LOS ANGELES SOFT-STORY RETROFIT Read More »

When you hire RetroFitting 360, we take the hassle out of acquiring your Los Angeles soft-story retrofit permits. Your experienced contractor will file all of the documentation needed with city officials and the LADBS. While we do this for you, you may still have some questions. Don’t worry, we are here to answer them. A …

WHAT ARE THE LOS ANGELES SOFT-STORY RETROFIT PERMITS Read More »

Despite all of the information on the internet, and our blog, here at RetroFitting 360, we still get a lot of questions pertaining to earthquake retrofitting. While we are happy to answer any question you may have, we thought it might be helpful to put together a list of the most frequently asked questions, along …

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THE ANSWERS ABOUT EARTHQUAKE RETROFITTING Read More »