Would you like to receive up to $3,000 toward an earthquake retrofit of your
house? The Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) program provides homeowners up to
$3,000 to strengthen their home and lessen the potential for earthquake damage.
Many homeowners will decide to hire a contractor to do the retrofit work instead of
doing it themselves. A typical retrofit may cost between $3,000 and $7,000 depending
on the location and size of the house, contractor fees, and the amount of materials and
work involved. If the homeowner is an experienced do-it-yourselfer, a retrofit can cost
less than $3,000.
The EBB program relies on adherence to the California Building Code, Chapter
A3. Chapter A3 is a statewide building code that sets prescriptive standards for
seismic retrofits of existing residential buildings.
Chapter A3 allows:
1. the building department to approve the retrofit for a house with a 4-foot or
shorter cripple wall, without requiring plans prepared by a registered design
professional (architect or engineer).
2. retrofits for houses with cripple walls higher than 4-feet with plans prepared by a
registered design professional.
Surrounding the crawl space under the first floor, many houses have a short wood
framed wall (\”cripple wall\”) that needs to be strengthened to help prevent the house
from sliding or toppling off of its foundation during an earthquake. Strengthening
involves adding anchor bolts and plywood bracing in the crawl space.
Structurelock has been tested and proven and spec’d by structural engineers at the University of British Columbia’s Earthquake research facility” “Approved by the Ministry of Education in British Columbia.