Soft Story Retrofitting

When buildings, including apartments and condominiums, have large, open, lower level space that is not properly reinforced, like open parking or large rooms, they are considered to be soft story buildings. In an earthquake these buildings can collapse into the open space. Many people have been injured or died due to soft story buildings. Learning from the 6.7 Los Angeles earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in Northern California many cities have introduced requirements and mandatory deadlines for retrofitting soft story buildings.

Call us to determine whether or not your building needs to be retrofitted. You can check our contractors license and standing with the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late!

The deadlines for San Francisco are listed in the table below.

Wood-Frame Seismic Retrofit Program Timeline
Compliance Tier	Submission of Screening Form and Optional Evaluation Form	Submittal of Permit Application with Plans for Seismic Retrofit Work	Completion of Work and Issuance of CFC

1	9-15-14	9-15-15	9-15-17

2	9-15-14	9-15-16	9-15-18

3	9-15-14	9-15-17	9-15-19

4	9-15-14	9-15-18	9-15-20

All Notices Due: 9-15-2004
Form from: sfdbi.org/

Wood-Frame Seismic Retrofit Program Timeline

Compliance Tier 1 Due Dates

9/15/2014 – Submission of Screening Form and Optional Evaluation Form

9/15/2015 – Submittal of Permit Application with Plans for Seismic Retrofit Work

9/15/2017 – Completion of Work and Issuance of CFC

Compliance Tier 2 Due Dates

9/15/2014 – Submission of Screening Form and Optional Evaluation Form

9/15/2016 – Submittal of Permit Application with Plans for Seismic Retrofit Work

9/15/2018 – Completion of Work and Issuance of CFC

Compliance Tier 3 Due Dates

9/15/2014 – Submission of Screening Form and Optional Evaluation Form

9/15/2017 – Submittal of Permit Application with Plans for Seismic Retrofit Work

9/15/2019 – Completion of Work and Issuance of CFC

Compliance Tier 4 Due Dates

9/15/2014 – Submission of Screening Form and Optional Evaluation Form

9/15/2018 – Submittal of Permit Application with Plans for Seismic Retrofit Work

9/15/2020 – Completion of Work and Issuance of CFC

All Notices Due: 9-15-2004 | Form from: sfdbi.org

Be prepared for the next large earthquake. The lives of us and our loved ones could be saved. We don’t know when the next big one will hit, but we can be prepared.

The first step is to calculate the budget for retrofitting. We can help you do that.

We’ll go over things that you may want to do, have to do, and things that could wait. We’ll be fair and honest.