Earthquake Retrofitting

We are currently working with Bolt Down the Bay Area. They haven’t actually done the retrofits yet, but I have been very impressed so far with their office team. The process with permits and approvals from the city of Berkeley has been one of drawn out frustration and hoops to jump through, and the team at Bolt Down has been incredibly responsive and helpful in shepherding us through the very frustrating process. They are even honoring a price very close to their original estimate even though the city’s pushback significantly expanded the amount of work that will be required. Will update after the work is complete!

We've had two foundation/retrofitting projects done on our house, by Duval Construction and Alameda Structural.  They both are highly rated by all the rating websites we could find, worked well with us, and did good, clean work.  We had to replace our foundation, with the retrofit included as part of the job.  (They removed the whole foundation, putting the house up on blocks, causing not a single crack in our old-fashioned plaster or damage to the trees and shrubs next to the house.  No mess, and good stucco repair.)  

Notes: 

1. Long before we had the foundation replaced, we had the usual reinforcement work that is done if the foundation is sound.  Unfortunately, a lot of older houses in this area have weakened foundations, due to age and to serious problems with the concrete formulation.  Please be sure your foundation is in good shaped before any retrofitting -- if the concrete is weak, bolting the house down is like bolting into butter. 
2. Porches are often omitted from earthquake retrofits because they aren't a serious earthquake hazard.  When we replaced our foundation, we left the porch alone.  Some years later, however, it became clear that the foundation problems had caught up with the porch, hence the second project.  We went with the second firm over some very minor details in the bid -- either one is great.

duvalconstructioninc.com

alamedastructural.com

We are going to do seismic upgrades with E&F Construction and I highly recommend them. Talk to the owner, Tony. They have been doing retrofits and structural work for a long time. The process has been very straightforward and honest. They also handled all permitting, etc. Their online reviews are fantastic.

We used Advanced Building Service (Quake Busters) a few years ago with our EBB grant that covered a small portion of the cost. Our house had unfortunately been previously retrofitted by the last owners and not up to code. They recommended a cost-effected engineer to create the plan and finished work in a timely fashion, during covid no less so it was an awkward time in the world. Slight hiccup with the approval from the City, but Quake Busters met with them and got the miscommunication figured out. I was happy with the experience -- I got three quotes, QB was about the same as one quote, and there was another quote that was way higher and not really consistent with what the other 2 recommended. I would definitely recommend them for a bid, and I've recommended them to neighbors, too. 

A funny thing about retrofit, is that you hopefully never have to find out whether they did their job well (i.e., hopefully there is not a major earthquake during the time you own a home)!