Soft Story Retrofit

California foundation works have been a soft story retrofitting expert for over 20 years. We provide a wide range of foundation repair and or maintenance programs to suit your foundation and retrofitting needs in Los Angeles.

Buildings such as soft story are constructed of concrete and suffer a specific type of damage when earthquakes and earth shifting occurs. The damage includes cracked and chipped walls, but most alarmingly, it leads to structural failure of multi-story buildings with soft ground floors used for parking. This type of weak concrete structure is referred to as a Soft Story. The extensive damage that this type of building can sustain during an earthquake is most often due to an inherent weakness in the structural system, design, detailing, poor material quality, and unsound construction practices.

Earthquake Retrofit Overview

What We Do?

We are here to help property owners especially since the city of Los Angeles has just adopted a mandatory ordinance requiring all soft-story buildings to be retrofitted. Don’t wait to make your building a safer place. California Foundation Works works directly with structural engineers on each project to bring it up to today’s codes. Our Services include:

Shear Wall reinforcement
Concrete shear walls

Moment resisting steel frames
Reinforced steel columns

Foundation footings and grade beams
Braced steel frames

Soft Story Retrofitting

Hillside retrofitting

Seismic Retrofitting

Reasons For Soft Story Foundation Damage

Poor material quality

Inadequate steel reinforcement

Poor detailing of structural joints

insufficient steel reinforcement in columns with a large aspect ratio

Inappropriate anchoring of beam and slab reinforcement

Commercial Seismic Retrofit

Soft Story Retrofitting Procedure

Soft Story Retrofitting procedure begins with an inspector coming to check the soft story structure and assess its vulnerabilities. Then, with the help of our structural engineer they will devise a plan on how to retrofit the structure and make it durable for the next seismic activity. After the planning and engineering is done and the plan is authorized by the city, our team will come on site and start the work.

First, the concrete slab is broken up by our demo team. Afterwards, new reinforcement beams are installed underneath the old concrete poles that support the structure. Then, concrete is poured to reinforce the new beams. Once this process is complete, the structure will be stabilized and structurally sound. By the end of the process the soft story building would comply with the Los Angeles city regulations and requirements for soft story buildings

Why Us? Why Now?

At California Foundation Works, we’re happy to guide you through the entire process from the first inspection to the final touches. We have done so for over 25 years now and we are local experts of soft story retrofit. We will ensure that your greater Los Angeles area building meets all current California codes. Don’t delay when it comes to the safety of your residents and the property value of your building.

Don’t skip out on the soft story retrofit requirements. There is human life and property at stake. Since LA is under constant seismic activity warning, the next disaster can happen anytime soon. Make sure your soft story property is retrofitted to withstand the next seismic activity.