Is Your Apartment Building a SOFT-STORY Building?

Soft-story buildings have structurally weak ground floors, normally wood-frame construction with a large open area often used for parking. Older buildings of this style, that have not been retrofitted, could collapse in a major earthquake, destroying the properties and risking the lives of those who reside in them.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake, as well as the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, many soft-story buildings were severely damaged, which prompted changes in building codes. The 6.0 magnitude Napa earthquake in August 2014, the largest in California in 20 years, has again drawn attention to the dangers of older buildings that don't meet current seismic standards.

The city of Mountain View is set to follow the example of San Francisco and Berkeley by encouraging, or perhaps forcing, property owners to retrofit buildings in the city that are more likely to collapse.

There is an estimated 100 to 125 buildings in Mountain View that have a soft-story design that may need retrofitting. Landlords in Berkeley have been paying anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 per unit for the seismic retrofit work, averaging about $3,280 per unit, according to Berkeley’s Planning and Development department.

If you have this style of a building, protect your investment. Hire a structural engineer to inspect your building and determine if seismic retrofitting is needed.

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