Structural Work for Older Houses in La Verne
Seismic bolting, cripple wall bracing and beam work for older La Verne houses, starting with whether the frame is actually tied to its foundation.
Is my house actually bolted down? An owner of an older La Verne house can fairly ask that on the first visit, and the answer is under the floor. We crawl in with a light and a tape, find the sill plate where the wood frame rests on the concrete, and count the anchors along it. Then we look at the cripple walls, the stud walls between foundation and floor, and note whether any plywood stiffens them.
Bolts, plates and plywood
Where anchors are missing or spaced too far apart, new ones go through the sill into the concrete. If the sill sits too close to the floor framing to drill, steel plates fasten it to the side of the foundation. Each cripple wall then gets structural plywood nailed on a set pattern, with vent holes cut so air still moves through the crawlspace. Nothing upstairs is opened for any of this. Plaster, floors and trim are left alone, and the rooms remain usable throughout.
Plans and inspection
A seismic retrofit like this often fits a prescriptive plan, a standard set of details the building office accepts without custom engineering. Anything that alters a bearing wall or calls for a beam or new footings needs an engineer's design. The city's building office takes the plans through review, then an inspector looks at the anchors and nailing before anything is covered. We tell you which route applies after the first look underneath, so the scope and the paperwork both match what the house has.
About our Structural Work serviceEverything we do in La Verne
Structural Work in La Verne: common questions
Doors that bind in their frames, floors that tilt toward one wall and cracks running off the corners of openings point to movement. Under the house, rusted or absent anchors, unbraced cripple walls and joists cut for old pipes are the conditions that need attention, and we look for all of them on the walk-through.
Plans for structural changes go to the city for a permit before work begins. An engineer is needed for any beam, or for removing part of a bearing wall. Anchor bolts and cripple wall plywood on a typical raised floor can often follow the standard plan set, which keeps engineering out of a simple retrofit.
Usually. A crawlspace retrofit touches nothing in the rooms. For an opening in a bearing wall, the disturbance is held to that wall and the strip of ceiling just above it. Trim is taken off carefully and kept, and the plaster at the cut is rebuilt layer by layer until the patch disappears into the old finish.
Other work we do in La Verne
Talk to us about your house in La Verne
Send the details and we will set up a walk-through and a written scope.