Foundations & Seismic Retrofit
In Los Angeles, foundations are not a boring line item — they are earthquake history written in concrete. Understanding when your house was built tells you a great deal about what is holding it up.
How It Actually Goes
Step by step, in plain language.
- 01
Inspection and diagnosis
We look at crawlspace framing, cripple walls, bolting, post-and-pier conditions, slab cracking, drainage, and how the doors and floors behave. Cracks tell a story — the width, direction, and whether they move matter more than their length.
- 02
Engineering
Structural repair and retrofit work is engineered, not improvised. A licensed engineer specifies anchors, hardware, shear panels, or new footings, and the city reviews it.
- 03
Permits and inspections
Foundation and retrofit work is permitted and inspected. Los Angeles has a standard plan set for common soft-story and cripple-wall retrofits, which keeps straightforward jobs from needing full custom design.
- 04
Execution
Depending on the diagnosis: anchor bolts and plywood on cripple walls, new footings poured in sections, pier and grade-beam work, drainage correction, or slab repair. Sectional work keeps the house supported throughout.
- 05
Verification and drainage
Final inspection, then we fix the water problem that often caused the movement in the first place — grading, downspouts, and subsurface drainage.