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May 18, 2009
Earthquake Retrofit Information - A Great Resource
Many associations and owners read the articles on my website that relate to earthquake insurance and can see that I believe the insurance is very important and that if a board is considering dropping it, doing due diligence with regard to all options and presenting owners with proper information is really critical. Because of the writings, I often receive information from persons that are familiar with various aspects of the subject matter. In this blog, I want to introduce you to one of the resources that has come across my desk. Below is an article written by a person who has considerable knowledge, and information available on his website, related to retrofitting buildings for earthquake protection.
Read the article if you are interested and you will see his website noted at the end.
"Earthquake Retrofits: Solutions for Low-Rise, Wood-Framed Condominiums
The floor layouts that make many condominiums and townhouses economical to build and maintain also make them vulnerable to earthquake damage. A typical condo unit has many openings in the front and rear walls: either garage doors, entries, windows, or sliding patio doors. Since there is another unit next door, the side walls cannot have any openings. Large openings (or several smaller openings) in walls reduce the ability of the wall to resist earthquakes forces.
Retrofitting an individual unit with extensive openings in the front and rear walls often requires a heavy steel “moment-frame” in both of those walls. Moment-frames are very costly to fabricate and install. But the same traits that make condominiums economical to build in the first place could (with some creative legal and engineering solutions) also make them more economical to retrofit. From a strict engineering standpoint, it would work just as well to install only two moment-frames in an entire building, not two in every unit. You would still need to tie the whole building to the frames, but this process would be much less expensive than installing moment-frames in every unit. If both the front and rear walls of the building need moment-frames, they could be installed in different units; this could allow greater flexibility in construction and lessen the disturbance to occupants.
The above solution would work easily for an apartment building, where the manager could simply say, “Your unit is the one with slightly less storage because of the seismic retrofit frame.” But with condominiums you could run into all sorts of issues—for instance, is an easement required for structural elements that clearly cross property lines? If the moment-frame that strengthens an entire building is within an individual unit, would the association have right-of-entry to perform inspections? Do the owners of the unit with the frame pay less in assessments because they are giving up space? Are they compensated because there will be more disturbance to their unit during construction?
For many homeowner associations, addressing the above issues could allow a much more economical retrofit of a building as a whole versus retrofitting individual units as completely separate entities. Community associations exist to achieve solutions to common problems, so a cooperative solution should be within reach.
Some ideas:
• Talk to your association’s legal counsel: clearly a single building shared by several property owners already has other shared elements such as the roof, possibly fire alarm systems, etc; a common structural system to resist earthquakes is very similar to these.
• Volunteer to have a moment-frame installed in your unit: homeowner associations hardly ever come to unanimous agreement; people who are resistant to retrofitting may be happier to know that their unit will have much less construction disturbance than yours.
• Place bids on how much to compensate units with frames or other retrofit hardware installed: Maybe in your particular building the moment-frame would block off a storage closet in which ever unit receives the frame. How much money would you want in exchange for losing that closet? If you want $2,500 (remember, this closet is gone forever) but your neighbor will accept less than that, then the frame would go in the neighbor’s unit. Many factors could affect how much “compensation” a unit owner would accept. An absentee owner with a unit vacant between tenants might not mind construction disturbance as much as an owner who uses their unit for a home business.
Thor Matteson is a structural engineer with almost 20 years of experience designing houses, multi-family buildings, seismic retrofits for masonry and wood-framed buildings, and many other unique projects. His book, “Wood-Framed Shear Wall Construction—an Illustrated Guide” was published in 2004 by the International Code Council (available at his website, www.shearwalls.com). Mr. Matteson works with associations to make their complexes more earthquake-safe. You can e-mail him at thorm@sti.net. This article should not be used a substitute for professional services or advice for a specific project or property."
Posted by Beth Grimm at May 18, 2009 8:05 PM