Structural Work for Older Glendale Houses
Bracing and bolting for older Glendale houses with structural plywood, galvanized anchors and sound original fir framing kept wherever it tests solid.
Structural-grade plywood, nailed to the cripple walls on a tight edge schedule, is the material we choose to brace an older Glendale house. It resists the sideways racking an earthquake puts on the short walls under a raised floor. Vent holes drilled in each panel let the framing behind it dry out, and the panels stop clear of the soil so water pooling after a hard storm cannot wick up into them.
Picking hardware for the concrete it meets
Before anchors are ordered, we sound the foundation with a hammer, and if it rings dull or crumbles we ask the engineer about testing it. Sound concrete can take epoxy-set bolts. Weak or shallow concrete may call for retrofit plates that fasten to the side of the sill, which also suit a crawlspace too low to drill straight down. Every connector is hot-dip galvanized, since a dripping drain under a floor can keep the air damp for months. Each item is listed by model on the plan so the inspector can match it in place.
What stays original
Old-growth fir joists and sills that are dry and solid are kept, because that lumber is often denser than new stock of the same size. Rotted lengths are cut out and spliced with pressure-treated wood. Plaster walls, wood floors and trim in the rooms above stay put while the work goes on below them. The City of Glendale building department reviews the structural plans and inspects the bolts, panels and nailing before the crawlspace hatch is closed. Your scope names each material, where it goes and why it was picked.
About our Structural Work serviceEverything we do in Glendale
Structural Work in Glendale: common questions
Diagonal cracks running up from door corners, floors that tip toward the middle of a room, gaps opening where walls meet the ceiling and doors that rub their frames all point that way. From the crawlspace, a sill with no bolt heads in view or short walls with bare studs suggests a retrofit. A walk-through settles it.
A permit, yes: the City of Glendale issues one for structural work and inspects it. Seismic bolting and bracing can often be built to a prescriptive plan with no engineer involved. Removing a bearing wall, setting a new beam or fixing a cracked foundation calls for an engineer's drawings and calculations, which the city reviews first.
For a crawlspace retrofit, yes, because the crew works entirely below the floor. Beam work needs an opening in a wall or ceiling. In that case nearby casings and crown are taken down by hand and labeled, the floor and ceiling are covered, and the plaster patch is feathered into the old surface around it.
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Other work we do in Glendale
Talk to us about your house in Glendale
Send the details and we will set up a walk-through and a written scope.