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Old Posted Feb 23, 2020, 12:40 AM
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Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
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Location: San Francisco
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Qubert View Post
Weren't first floor garages banned in CA after Northridge? I've heard that "soft floors" which garages certainly count as were seen as major earthquake risks.
They are quake risks. They have to be retrofitted in major cities by local ordinance:

Quote:
Soft Story Retrofitting Isn't Just Recommended, It’s the Law

In November of 2015, the City of Los Angeles signed into law, the Mandatory Retrofit Program under Ordinance 183893, requiring the retrofitting of wood-frame apartment buildings to better withstand a major earthquake. Structures that are in danger of being catastrophically damaged in the event of an earthquake are to be upgraded within a finite amount of time. This includes soft story retrofitting in Los Angeles county buildings. Los Angeles now has the nation's toughest earthquake safety rules.

From the Los Angeles Times:
“Under the law, property owners will have seven years to fix wood apartments and 25 years to fix concrete buildings. The city has already identified about 13,500 apartment complexes that officials suspect need repairs. A Times investigation in 2013 found more than 1,000 older concrete structures — including landmark buildings in downtown, Hollywood and Westwood — that require close scrutiny for retrofitting.”

Many more cities in the region are following suit and mandating the same soft story retrofit Los Angeles has signed into law. This is in an effort to avoid devastation and to safeguard residents from harm that has been caused by large earthquakes such as the Northridge quake in 1994.
https://www.alphastructural.com/othe...g-los-angeles/

I'm not sure whether this applies to single family homes at all and it doesn't ban first floor garages. They just have to be strong enough to meet new building codes. Not being an architect or engineer, I can't tell you what design features that requires.

In San Francisco, the requirement does NOT apply to single family homes:

Quote:
The Soft Story Legislation

On the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Mayor Ed Lee signed into law the Mandatory Soft Story Retrofit Ordinance. This legislation requires the retrofit for all San Francisco “multi-unit soft-story buildings,” defined as: wood-frame structures, containing five or more residential units, having two or more stories over a "soft" or "weak" story, and permitted for construction prior to January 1, 1978. This program is currently active.
https://sfgov.org/esip/soft-story
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