Valley Glen, Los Angeles County
Whole home remodeling and shear walls in Valley Glen
Aspenwell Construction replaces bracing lost to wider doors and windows in a Valley Glen whole home remodel, with shear walls drawn for LADBS.
A wider slider or a new bank of windows in an outside wall is the change that puts structural work at the front of a Valley Glen whole home remodel. That stretch of wall was helping the house resist racking in a quake. Cut it open and the bracing has to come back somewhere, through a shear wall with plywood and hold-downs, or a steel frame where the opening leaves no room.
Getting the bracing back
The engineer first counts how much braced wall the opening removes along that side of the house. If enough solid wall remains on either side, new plywood nailed on a tight pattern and a hold-down at each end can make up the difference. A narrow pier between openings may be too short to work as bracing at all, and that is where a prefabricated steel or wood portal frame goes in. Every hold-down needs a footing that can resist uplift, so the concrete under each end is checked and sometimes widened.
The remodel around the new walls
Once the bracing is framed and inspected, the remodel continues with the new header over the opening, the window or door itself, then rough plumbing, wiring, insulation and drywall. A crawlspace opened for the footings is a good moment to bolt the sill and brace the cripple walls if that has not been done. Valley Glen lies within the City of Los Angeles, and LADBS reviews the shear wall calculations and inspects the nailing. Van Nuys, Panorama City, Sherman Oaks, Lake Balboa, Valley Village and Encino share that department, and a wide opening in any of them is planned the same way.
What we build in Valley Glen
Structural work comes first on this list, and every service starts with a look at the framing and foundation.
Plan structural work in Valley Glen
Send the form and we will arrange a visit, then put the scope in writing.