After an informative phone call and very rough ballpark budget, you may invite us out to assess your home in person.  During this hour long meeting, we will determine your home's vulnerabilities, and explain what work we will do to reinforce those weaknesses.  After we take notes and measurements, we will prepare and present a fixed price proposal to retrofit your home.  Our bid always includes a building permit and any required engineering, plus finish removal and replacement if needed.

Seismic retrofitting is more than just "foundation bolting", but that's definitely part of it. By this time, we've had engineering done and gotten a permit, had a preconstruction walk with you, and opened up siding or drywall as needed.  During this phase, we install bolts and/or plates to anchor your framing to its foundation. We also install hold down hardware per the engineer's specifications.  Then we'll schedule the required bolt inspection.

Unreinforced cripple walls or pony walls are your homes weakest element.  After we insulate the cripple walls, we install structural plywood shear walls/panels.  It is critical that everything be perfect here - from the type and spacing of the nails to how they are installed; from how we upgrade wall framing to the way we cut the plywood.  Nobody has more experience than our specialized technicians.

The final structural element is to install shear transfer ties or framing clips to keep your first floor joists attached.  After all the reinforcements are in place and we've checked our own work, we'll schedule (and pass) a final building inspection 

If we took off any finishes to perform the retrofit, we'll now replace the removed siding or sheetrock and button up all the walls.  Our experts will leave everything weather-tight and "paint ready".  We'll do a final walk through, and you'll get a final invoice.  Finally, we leave you with the plans and permit, as well as a certificate of completion (or your insurance company's form).  Any issues? Let us know and we'll make things right. Everything good?  Please leave us a Google Review!