Structural Work for Older Valley Glen Houses
Which original parts stay when an older Valley Glen house gets structural work? Most of them, since a retrofit runs from below and beam cuts stay narrow.
Which of the original parts survive the repair? That is the question to settle on the first visit to an older Valley Glen house, and the answer is usually most of them. Anchors, sill and cripple wall plywood all go in from the crawlspace, so plaster, casings and the old wood floors above are left in place. Where a beam or a new post is needed, we mark the exact wall and ceiling strip that has to open before any number is written.
Parts that stay put
Plaster on wood lath is heavy and brittle, yet it rarely needs to come down for a seismic retrofit. The work happens under the floor: rotten sill is cut out and replaced with treated lumber, new anchors are drilled into the stem wall, and plywood is nailed over the cripple studs. Original oak or fir flooring stays down, because nothing is reached from above. Windows, doors and their casings keep their positions. If the floor has settled over a sagging girder, a new post on a poured pad can stop further movement without forcing the house back to where it once sat.
When a wall has to open
Some scopes do reach the rooms. A bearing wall coming out for a wider opening needs a beam, posts and footings, all sized by an engineer and drawn on stamped sheets. Valley Glen sits inside the City of Los Angeles, so LADBS reviews that set and sends an inspector to see the footing holes and the framing before anything is covered. Casings from the opened wall are pried off in single lengths, numbered on the back and rehung afterward. The ceiling cut follows the beam line and goes no wider, and the patch is troweled out to the plane of the old plaster.
About our Structural Work serviceEverything we do in Valley Glen
Structural Work in Valley Glen: common questions
Start with what moves. A door that has to be lifted to latch, a crack that climbs from a window corner and a floor that sounds hollow or springs under a step each say something about the frame. Then lift the crawlspace hatch and check the sill for anchor bolts, the cripple walls for sheathing and each post for a solid concrete base.
A permit, yes, from LADBS in every case. A plain bolting and bracing job on sound concrete may qualify for the standard LADBS retrofit drawings and skip custom calculations. Raising a sagging girder on new posts, taking out a bearing wall or replacing a failed footing needs an engineer to design it and stamp the drawings.
For a retrofit, yes, since every part of it is installed from below. The rooms only open if the scope includes a beam. Then the opening stays as narrow as the header allows, trim is taken down whole and labeled, plastic keeps the dust in that room, and the new plaster is skimmed to meet the old.
Structural Work in other cities
Other work we do in Valley Glen
Talk to us about your house in Valley Glen
Send the details and we will set up a walk-through and a written scope.