Structural Work in Pacoima
Pacoima houses on isolated piers need their own retrofit design. Aspenwell Construction checks the foundation type, then plans the work with an engineer.
Isolated concrete piers with posts on them, and no continuous wall around the edge, sometimes turn out to be all that holds up the floor of a Pacoima house. That find changes the whole retrofit. There is no perimeter sill to bolt and no cripple wall to sheathe, so the engineer has to design a different way for the house to resist sideways movement, from bracing between posts to a new perimeter footing.
Options for a house on piers
A floor carried on posts and piers resists an earthquake mainly through the connections at the top and bottom of each post. The engineer weighs what the framing and the soil allow. Options include steel connectors tying each post to its pier and girder, diagonal braces between posts, or a new perimeter footing with cripple walls built on it, which turns the house into one that can be bolted and braced in the usual way. Each pier is checked for cracks, lean and soil lost from around its base before the design is set.
Plan check and the open inspection
LADBS, the City of Los Angeles building department, reviews structural plans for Pacoima. Pier work needs an engineer's stamped calculations, and so does a new perimeter footing. If part of the house does sit on a continuous foundation, that part may follow the code's prescriptive retrofit sheets. The inspector checks footing excavations before any concrete is placed, and hardware and nailing before anything is covered. The quote lists the pier work and any conventional bolting as separate lines, with a working schedule for each.
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Structural Work in Pacoima: questions
That depends on the foundation. A continuous perimeter wall with short framed walls on top usually needs anchors at the sill and plywood on the cripple walls. A house standing on isolated piers has neither, so its design comes from the engineer. The inspection shows which type is under the floor, and the written scope says so.
A licensed structural engineer we engage draws pier bracing, new footings and beams. Where the house sits on a continuous foundation and the scope is a plain retrofit, the prescriptive sheets in the code can be enough. We prepare the submittal to LADBS and carry it through plan check.
What the floor stands on. Moving along the crawlspace with a flashlight, we see whether a wall runs around the edge or posts sit on separate piers. Next comes a probe into the wood at each bearing point, then a look at each post for lean and each pier for cracks.
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Describe the house and what it needs. We look at the structure first and send the quote in writing.