BUILDING RETROFIT

We provide mandatory soft-story construction in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and San Fernando Valley areas.

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Existing building structures requiring a soft story retrofit are structures that were built before 1978, built according to type 5 construction practices of wood framed roofs, 2nd and 1st floors. Soft, weak or open-front walls, SWOF walls, require seismic retrofitting, they have a ground floor that is “soft,” a slab on grade with a continuous wall and isolated center concrete pad construction. The ground floor is “open” like found in many tuck under or tuck in garages.

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These soft structures are considered a “soft story” when in the event of a seismic event, the building’s soft reaction to lateral forces would not be sturdy enough to continue to support the roof, 2nd and 1st floors.

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Architectural design builds firm specializing in bringing buildings into compliance with the Los Angeles Municipal Earthquake Retrofit Code Ordinance 183983 and Ordinance 184081. Our goal is retrofitting and rehabilitating soft, weak, or open-front (SWOF) walls by the most cost effective approach.

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Retro Fit excels at a seismic retrofit design that is minimally invasive but will still comply with Earthquake Ordinance 183983 and Soft-Story Ordinance 184081 and all other local codes and standards as applicable. In many instances, we are able to exempt a building of needing any steel moment frame retrofit at all. As an Architectural contractor, we provide full architectural, structural engineering, and soft story construction services. We take care of it all, site evaluation, architectural drawings and all document preparation. Soft Story Retrofit will do all document running and liaison with the city of Los Angeles before, during, and after a retrofit.