foundation bolting

Why is earthquake brace bolt necessary for strengthening your home?

We really cannot take a risk about natural disasters. Can we? If something huge happens due to a bad natural disaster, then the safety of ourselves will be the first thing that we have to be sure of. So what if an earthquake hits is your house ready to deal with that? Nowadays it is the primary job of homeowners to make sure that there living place is standing on a strong foundation so that if a strong earthquake hits possibilities of disaster would be lower.
  
Earthquake Brace bolt or seismic retrofit is the process which is most used nowadays by constructors or homeowners before building a house. Seismic retrofitting is a modified process which makes existing building structures more resistant to prevent any Seismic activities like abnormal ground motion or failure of soil while hitting of an earthquake. Seismic activity defines seismic waves which travel through the layers of the earth if an earthquake happens causing big natural disasters like abnormal vibrations in the soil, eruptions of volcanoes, magma movement, and large landslide explosion due to acoustic energy. These seismic waves generated from the focus or epicenter of an earthquake. Now before building any house, it is necessary to be sure of this thing that is the foundation of the building strong enough to prevent an earthquake?

What are the things to check before doing a Seismic retrofitting?

If you are doing a seismic retrofitting then there are these few things you have to check:
➢       If the frame of the house is made of wood then doing a seismic retrofitting is most important.
➢       If your house is older than 40 years and its foundation isn’t strong enough to protect it, then Seismic retrofitting is must for this case.
➢       If your house is standing on a raised foundation and it has a crawled space then also doing seismic retrofitting is important.
➢       If your house is standing on land or foundation where there used to be a water body then doing seismic retrofitting is must because if the foundation of a house is standing on a water body, then it will automatically become weak after some year.

These are some criteria for seismic retrofit. There are some other criteria too and meeting these criteria would lead you to take a step and do Earthquake Brace bolt or seismic retrofitting.

How do Earthquake brace and bolt retrofit work?

Many houses that were made before 1975 have “Crippled Wall.” A Crippled Wall means a very short may be lesser than 4 ft. Wall which is wood-framed and surrounded by the crawl space under the house. To prevent this type of Crippled Wall from sliding off, we need Seismic retrofitting or brace and bolts. The foundation of a crippled wall is needed to be braced with plywood during a strong earthquake. This will create a strong resistance and help the house to bottle up its foundation if an earthquake occurs.

The Next Stage: In this stage, we will see how to start this brace and bolt Seismic retrofit. Now making a house Seismic retrofit brace and bolt has some method and plans where homeowners don’t have to appoint any designing professionals to say an architect or an engineer. In most of the cases, homeowners don’t require any complex design or analysis where they can use certain retrofitting processes under some guidance. Now, this guidance is building codes which are existing in some municipalities, corporations, bay areas and metropolitan cities and this guidance are pre-approved by the corporations of that very certain area following these guidance homeowners can build their houses and make it Seismic Retrofit using brace and bolt. There is a word for these methods that are used, and that is called “Plan Set.” The types of Plan sets are:

➢       If a single family is living in a house which has a Crippled Wall with less than four feet length and wood frame on it, then you can use pre-approved plan set and exhibit it. You can also consult local building department and authorities for permission and check for what building plan set is proper for your house.
➢       This is the procedure of the plan set if your building matches the given criteria. What if it does not meet the criteria? There is also a way for that. Then you have to hire a designing professional to get the job done. In that case, they will prepare a separate design according to the structure of your house.
➢       In the next stage, you have to use Plan Set details to get the improvement from the following authorities. Once your plan set is approved, you can secure the permit to build your house.
➢       If you get the permit the next thing you have to do is to hire a licensed contractor, and the local building authorities who gave you the permit will guide you throughout this entire process, and if you are a handy yourself, you can do it on your own.

These are the steps following which the Earthquake Brace and bolt can be done with Seismic Retrofitting.

Cost: in Indian currency, it will take a big amount of money to activate this Earthquake Brace and Bolt. In most of the Indian communities, their corporations charge it 1.9 lacs- 4.5 lacs INR and this is just the activation cost. If you are going to hire a licensed constructor, then you will have to pay little extra bucks.

Retrofitted houses get premium discount: Yes, this is true. There is some corporations area in our country where for paying home taxes payers will get premium discounts if their house is old and Earthquake Brace and bolt proof. For certified plan sets of Seismic retrofitting in case of older houses taxpayer can get 20-23% premium discount.

So, as everybody says that it is “Safety” which comes first. It is the right time to make your old houses retrofit by doing Earthquake Brace bolt.  

More information please visit here http://www.seismicsafety.com/