How to Retrofit a Home for an Earthquake | Ask This Old House
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- Ask This Old House host Kevin O’Connor travels to Portland, Oregon to learn how to protect homes from earthquakes.
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Time: 1-2 days
Cost: $2000 and up
Skill Level: Expert - for licensed professionals only
Tools List for Earthquake Protection:
Palm nailer
Drill driver
Masonry drill
Pipe wrench
Shopping List:
Metal L brackets
Foundation plates
10 penny nails
Wood screws
Screw anchors
Automatic gas shut off valve
Pipe dope
Gas nipples
Museum putty
Zip ties
Water heater straps
Steps:
1. The work involved with a seismic retrofit often requires a consultation with an engineer, and any work involving gas must be done by a licensed professional. Consulting with a person who is licensed to do seismic retrofits can help identify key areas to work with in order to minimize damage.
2. The house can be secured to the foundation by securing metal L brackets into the rim joist and the sill plate at locations determined by the engineer with a palm nailer and 10 penny nails.
3. To connect the sill plate to the foundation, drill screw anchors into the anchor plates and the foundation, and wood screws through the anchor plates to the sill plate. Predrill the sill plate to prevent it from splitting.
4. To prevent gas from leaking into the house during an earthquake, an automatic gas shut off valve can be installed by a licensed gas fitter.
5. Shut off the gas to the meter.
6. Disconnect the gas pipes starting from the meter until you reach a level gas pipe.
7. Thread the gas shut off valve into the pipes using pipe dope and nipples.
8. Reconnect the remaining gas pipes to the meter and turn the gas back on. Check for any leaks in the new gas work.
9. Secure any valuables and nick knacks to the wall, shelves, and floor using museum putty and zip ties.
10. Secure the water heater to the surrounding walls using straps.
Resources:
While the specialty hardware that was used to secure the house to the foundation can be found at most home centers, determining the proper location for that hardware may require a consultation with an engineer.
The seismic gas shutoff valve installed was a Northridge Valve, which is manufactured by Seismic Safety Products (www.seismic-safety.com/). Gas work is extremely dangerous and should always be left to licensed professionals.
The museum putty used to secure valuables to the shelves is manufactured by QuakeHOLD (www.quakehold.com/emergency-ma....
Expert assistance with this project was provided by NW Seismic (www.nwseismic.com/) and Christopher Higgins.
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Homeowners have a virtual truckload of questions for us on smaller projects, and we're ready to answer. Ask This Old House solves the steady stream of home improvement problems faced by our viewers-and we make house calls! Ask This Old House features some familiar faces from This Old House, including Kevin O'Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook.
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How to Retrofit a Home for an Earthquake | Ask This Old House
/ thisoldhouse - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
That emergency gas shut-off is genius, and so elegantly simple--no accelerometers, no electronics, all mechanical and easily reset.
Yes, like it too. The sticky tape for fixing vases to a cupboard, however, seemed a little bit strange. I am sure it either ruins the furniture over time although he said it would not, or it loses its stickyness.
Too bad it's made from aluminum...and is threading into steel. Recipe for galvanic corrosion from dissimilar metals. As long as you don't mind paying a plumber to come out and replace it every 10 years, sure it's a good idea.
@@cup_and_cone if it's largely in a dry environment it shouldn't make a blind bit of difference. It would be been better if the nut was brass, or similar.
@@geetarwanabe The PNW is very wet and the gas pipes are essentially grounded.
@@cup_and_cone Sounds a lot cheaper than having an explosion destroy your house... but maybe that's just me?
Its actually really awesome how a few pieces of metal make so much of a difference. This same concept also applies to roof joist clips in the case of hurricanes.
Interesting comment about how most damage from earthquakes is from natural gas fires, not structural damage. When it comes to earthquakes and energy use - people tend to conjure irrational fears of a possible worst case scenario to a centralized, clean, electric power generation plant that is fortified in a concrete bunker - yet are indifferent or unaware of the dangers from ubiquitous natural gas infrastructure that commonly ruptures or explodes, which results in the large scale destruction of property and causalities.
These anchor plates mainly prevent the unseating of the walls when the displacement due to the earthquake is too much. It works for lightweight structures, like the timber houses shown. It also assumes that the house frame is reasonably decently build, that is can resist the lateral inertial forces of the earthquake. This means the timber joints can actually take the load.
As for large non-structural elements, such as large display cabinets, the top of the cabinet needs to be secured against tipping over or overturning. A simply solution are metal straps screwed to the wall vertical studs. For heavy furniture, stretching straps, such bungee cords work in a pinch. Indeed, the issue of earthquake non-structural damage is a big deal for museums so they have come up with plenty of solutions.
I grew up in Portland and only experienced one small earthquake, all the time i have lived here. We lived in California for 15 years and quakes more than I would have liked.
Northridge earthquake in '94 shook me out of CA to Portland. Thoughts of "the Big One" on our Cascadia subduction zone do not bother me anywhere near as much as the very frequent "small" ones every few years in CA.
Love this show
Wow that guy seems like a lot of fun to be around .." oh yes in your house the walls will just fall in on themselves and implode" .. def someone I want to hang out with...
I would like to see a more detailed video about those rectangular or square steel plates included an overview of the installation.
Thank's for tips
I am more interested in how to retrofit earthquakes for homes.
Museum putty eh? Never knew that stuff existed! I'll have to check it out now.
For me by far, this was one of the top most interesting and informative videos. Especially being it’s not your “run of the mill” DIY topic. Not in an active earthquake zone so don’t see this reinforcement.
Glad they mentioned securing art, shelves, and knick knacks... those things can fly in an earthquake. Any pictures over a bed should have an earthquake hook. TV's need to be anchored to their base. Large and heavy furniture needs to be anchored to the wall so they don't fall over.
Very happy the guys from the New England area didn't jump in and act like they knew everything about Earthquakes, instead they acted like pros and realized someone else knows way more.
My house is a bit better equipped even though it was built in the 50s, huge bolts tying the sill plate to the foundation which was quite surprising to me when I went looking at how to strengthing my house, as well as all the blocking in the walls at angles instead of horizontally. I mean I complain about it all the time since it's a PITA to drill through that blindly but it helps in the long run.
What if your house is built on or near a slope? Can or do you need to do a special retrofit for retaining walls?
Im in jersey and i still want the shake shut off.
With all the earthquakes happening in the US wonder why the gas utilities aren't installing those shutoff valves.
It's a good question. The answer is kind of complicated, put it really comes down to this: It's because gas companies and firefighters recommend that you DON'T shut off your gas supply unless there is a gas leak or ruptured line. If you DON'T smell gas or see a broken line, it can be more dangerous to shut off the gas than it is to leave it on. Studies show that the vast majority of people who turn off their gas in a disaster should not have done so.
Gas is delivered at a consistent pressure to each household. Whenever someone shuts off their gas, the pressure increases elsewhere. Imagine there's a small crack in the gas line outside your house, but it holds up under normal pressure. Now imagine that a thousand people in your neighborhood panic and turn off their gas, or have these cute little devices to do it automatically. The extra pressure will build up inside the gas lines, and that little crack will turn into a deadly gas leak.
Sorry about the long-winded reply.
@@christiangibbs8534
No no no no.
Turning off the gas doesnt increase line pressure. The line pressure is pressure regulated from the source to its destination.
Most likely the code isnt requiring this device for liability reasons. Perhaps it isnt 100% reliable.
I'm watching this show this morning. 2-21-21. In Kentucky. We don't have earthquakes. We have "Tremors" every now and then. We do have a fault line that goes through the center of the state. But, it lies dormant for centuries. Some day the plates might move, but I don't think it will in my lifetime.
I'm watching 11/21 after a 4.0 in S E Missouri.
i'd like to see a home with those foundation installments after a big earthquake. im in florida so i dont know much about it but its hard for me to imagine a house surviving a large earthquake thanks to those additions. anyone here know how good these held up after a big test? love the emergency gas shut off device though.
I lived through a few earthquakes in California, the single story homes actually don’t suffer much damage unless they’re brick, the mortar just falls apart bringing the rest with it. Balloon framed houses are on slabs and they usually just rock a little and things may fall off of shelves, but they usually survive just fine. Her house did have a basement as the foundation so that may create a whole new set of problems that those ties aren’t going to fix, like the cracks in the foundation that will probably occur. The good thing about earthquakes is they don’t usually last much more than a few seconds unlike the hurricanes you guys deal with. So the houses usually don’t fall over in that short period of time, unless it’s on a cliff, or multiple stories. When Mexico had their quake it did a lot of damage mostly due to inferior construction. Nothing makes money like fear.
These additions are more about keeping the top part of the house on top of the foundation--most earthquake damage is done when the top falls off the foundation, or a chimney stack wasn't secured so it falls straight through the entire home. If you keep everything tied to the foundation at least it won't fall until the foundation itself does.
Like a mega hurricane, there's only so much you can do to prevent damage in a mega earthquake. You do the best you can do and hope for the best.
An earthquake is the least of Portland's problem now.
That museum putty looks like it would be useful for preventing cat damage to stuff on mantles too.
Was hoping they'd do one on a soft story house
Rim joist and the sill plate were fastened to the foundation ; but what about the joists??
Great push the button at give it a test at 8.5 scale should do !.😄
@This Old House, Why aren't the new episodes online at your website? It still running the next week promo!
How do you retrofit in a tornado prone area, can this same system work or is there a retro pinning system. I was going to do it myself but can't find short drill bits that gradually increases in length.
Gas shut-off is so simple and a no-brainer for any gas supplied home. But unfortunately, in many areas including Portland there are a huge percentage of buildings, epecially residents that retrofit is just not possible, as the guest here explained.
4:42 I thought Simpson SDS screws are no pre-drill 🤔
Although my son's house in Florida supposedly meant all specs for hurricane protection, going through the house revealed that the contractor hadn't really done his job, nor had the bank inspectors. My son spent $300 on straps and brackets just to insure that the roof stayed on the house! Then he spent another $400 on other required upgrades to the windows and doors! Florida and the various counties and municipalities are notorious for being incompetent and corrupt. My hope for the people of Oregon is that the same situation isn't occurring there as well.
Omg he spent $700 for hurricane protection, that's so high.
@@gangisspawn1 He shouldn't have spent one single penny! The bank inspector should have noted the lack of straps and improper window and door protections. The bank then would have required the owner to fix the problems before the sale was complete. Hundreds, maybe thousands of homes in Florida like my sons have not had the modifications done to them due to a corrupt system. Sorry to say, when the next hurricane strikes, those home will be damaged or destroyed and people may die.
Very useful and safe episode! Especially the nice simple gas shut off mechanism with almost no moving parts nor electronics.
I’m in Alaska . Since 1964 we already have good earthquake codes. That’s why nobody died in our last 7.2 earthquake and the 7.0 a few years ago.
hello i hope some will answer my question, How do we often should retrofit our home?
Hi I hood you can help me, I’m getting a lot of vibrations from traffic over a road that is in need of repair. The highway department has made random patches of asphalt that is causing bumps in the road.noise and more intense vibration. What can I do? I have added wood supports in the crawl space but which seemed to work for short while, but now it’s getting worse. Hopefully you can help. Feel free to contact me.
I see everyone is getting excited, but remember that these tips / fixes are NOT for the big one. This is for the nuisance quakes that do mostly minor damage. Kinda like making your home kid proof. The issue I see with the automated gas valve is it's too easy to reset and if the home owner starts fooling with it while not knowing where to check for damage there will be LOTS of problems. This should only be reset by a trained professional, after inspection.
That house wasn't bolted to the concrete foundation???
My lovely city ! I really miss this city
Why not use a flex pipe for a gas connector?
How to strengthen a stud wall to a concrete slab
Dont their gas main flex? We have a fiexable one attaching to our home so when it shakes it won’t break.
Yes you can have flexible pipe but that dosent stop the gas pipework on the inside from leaking
Any benefit to doing any of this if you never have earthquakes where you live? Hsha
Maaaaan, they did such a good job with the video but then forgot to color correct the drone shot. Kinda ruined it lol. This was a really helpful video (esp the emergency shut-off valve!). I'm a new homeowner and am glad to know some questions to ask a seismic contractor.
That's just what color Oregon is. Mexico is orange, Russia is grey, africa is beige, california is yellow. Man don't you watch TV
I thought that the roof also needed to be strapped to the walls?
I live abut to Portland, what is his business called? How much is the general cost of a similar house like the one you featured?
@Gail Walker, that’s for hurricane.
The ruff? XD
Haha! I was thinking the same! Different regions has different ways of pronouncing certain words.
That bothered me
Tyrell Ashley Not as much as ten dee nails lol. Was he reading that (10d) from a script?
What about the brick chimney above the roof line.? If that comes tumbling down, goodbye roof and everything in it’s path.
Better a roof then the whole house.
@@saulgoodman2018 The roof will cause the walls to shift and then at that point the house is a total loss lol it would be deemed unsafe and have to be torn down
Pie 4life it may and it may not.
All the bricks need to be removed down to floor level. Most of the deaths in christchurch New Zealand earthquakes were falling chimneys and brickwork. In my house someone missed death by going for a smoke outside, where he was sitting inside a few minutes before had chimney fall on it and crushed the sofa.
Pie 4life a chimney collapse isnt going to damage a roof enough to shift the walls. Lol
Richard is an expert in securing water heaters from flopping around in an earthquake.
Couldn't stop laughing when the guy pt his channel locks on backwards and then turned it sideways. And pipe wrenches on that union? Should've used the proper crescent wrench and avoided damaging the nut
Michael was awesome, he needs a show too! Very interesting segment
Cute homeowner
Hopefully the earthquake isn’t too big 😮 or the shelter in place idea might not work. Great video though!!
So what if you have a 2 story house?
As far as Earth Quakes go; all you can do is try. Would this house survive in a serious quake in that area; probably not but it might give the home owner a chance to survive the fault.
Unfortunately when the neighbors house catches fire so does yours
Only adding those metal plates alone is enough to prepare for an earthquake........Interesting.!
its a part of design for new construction nowadays- anchors that tie the sil plate to the concrete, straps that connect the wall studs to the sil plate and concrete. In other areas, code requires hurricane ties to attach the roof structure to the rest of the framing of the house. some time ago, wood was just laid right on top of concrete or cinder block, and the weight of the roof and structure was enough to keep it in place. think about it like wearing bad shoes in winter. Its easy for you to fall when you have no traction. These plates lock your feet (or base) in place so that the rest of you is steady. Funny cost comparision: usually less than 1000 at time of build. Cost to retrofit: usually $10000 or more.
How many points do you have to connect the walls to the floor?
Robert Cookson if they told you that you wouldn’t need the guy in the video
If you did every sill plate in between the joists I think you'd be safe, although overkill........never kills........
@@Guillotines_For_Globalists Trying to be cost effective in doing it. Would think it should have a rating for how far aprt they can e to still be effective.
@@EyeintheSky999 The more the merrier. But if the wall isn't connected to the sill plate using other conventional methods I'm guessing this improvement would be nominal.
By the way, aren't all sill plates normally affixed to the foundation with bolts? Homes aren't just sitting on their foundations if they have been built within the past 80 years.
It’s guesswork and a borderline scam. There is no right/wrong answer.
Well, I guess my home will be coming down. I live in the Salt Lake Valley and the Wasatch fault is due to let go. The original part of my home was built in 1898 and it is all brick and plaster with a foundation that is just concrete with big grapefruit sized rocks mixed in it and it just pretty much sits on the ground surface. The next part of the home was put on in 1912, the foundation is better but still not the best design. The next addition was put on in 1922 when my Grandfather was just 8 years old and his family moved into the home. Don't know what that foundation is like, can't go under that part of the house to see. When I moved in we built two more rooms and they were built right. Another thing here is where I live if you dig down about 3-4 feet the soil turns into nothing but loose sand and gravel. I have no money so I can't fix things or move. I'm dead!
well, you had a good run.
Not necessarily...it's stood so far--longer than most modern fiberboard built homes will!
These should absolutely be standard building code in any earthquake zone.
Did he say the house was just sitting on the foundation and not anchored down at all?
He seems like a good con artist to me
Those sill plates won’t stop the building. Need to anchor each corner of the building at the truss to a point 45-60 degrees by guy wire to the ground.
That putty may be a little too much.
Nice to know roof is now pronounced "ruuf"
well you know what they are talking about right?
We say it both ways roo-f and ru -of. Not quite ruff. LOL
I would have liked to have seen earthquake straps put on the tank water heater. In California those are code and homeowners' insurance companies will inspect them before insuring your house.
No gas worker licensing laws in Portland? Many, many installations of the valve will not be that easy and will require complicated interior work also. A big liability for an unlicensed installer!
What happens when a snow plow drivers by in the winter triggering the automatic gas shut off. Now I have no freeze protection because my gas furnace can't run... Nothing's perfect.
davide82843... A snowplow causes vibration and noise, not lateral movement. Big difference!
@@rupe53 video just said when a truck driver by it might trip it. if you listen and guy said well here's how to reset it... Now imagine that same truck being a plow meaning it's winter meaning it's cold..............
@@davide82843… read my post again. A plow does NOT cause the kind of movement that will trigger this gadget, hot or cold, doesn't matter. Now, if the plow hit the house I could see where things might move enough to trip the valve closed.
@@davide82843 according to the manufacturer that's not the kind of vibration that triggers it the force is different
Read the Book Full Rip 9 which is found on Ebay for cheap. This area will have forces from the subduction zones just off the coast from them that this type of retrofit work will not help very much with. Good luck to them. J.
What's a ruf? Do you mean rOOf?
Here's the conundrum with installing Earthquake activated gas shutoff valves. Earthquake insurance generally has a 10% or 20% deductible. That means, if your house is severely damaged by an E'quake and your house is worth $1M, your deductible is $100K - $200K. The deductible on your homeowners insurance caused by a fire is a lot less, usually $500-$1000. So, if a damaging E'quake hits, you want your house destroyed by the fire. If the E'quake doesn't do much damage, you don't want a fire. So, there is a risk you take by installing and NOT installing this device.
Eric R gasoline is cheap...
@@athhud you are correct-- assuming you like the view from Sing Sing...
I highly doubt there are many arson investigations done when an area is devastated by an earthquake. I’m a firefighter and within the last few years we’ve had three houses burn and there is no doubt in my mind that each one was arson. One of them we extinguished before it did too much damage. We triple checked for hot spots and verified that it would not reignite. Next morning it was fully engulfed. Before it caught fire the second time there were pretty obvious burn patterns that suggested use of an accelerant. Another house caught fire because of a dispute between gay lovers. The guy cuffed his boyfriend to the bed, dumped gasoline throughout the house, set fire, and left. The third house burned after an ex-wife threatened to burn down her ex-husband’s rental property. No arson charges were brought against anyone in any of those incidents. I am sure the gay guy might have had arson thrown in with attempted murder charges, but he hung himself in the garage the next day. Crazy stuff. Needless to say, around here it is pretty hard to find yourself in prison for burning your own house down. Besides if you do it the right way, there is no evidence left to prove anything. Lol
Kevin seems baked. Just sayin'...
Well, he is in portland after all. I'm just surprised he isn't dawning scarf and thick framed glasses
@@MSI2k WORD. LOL. I hella thought he was gonna do that!!!
lol and again haha we in New Zealand have earthquakes on the daily basis haha
its the norm to feel a 3, 4, 5, even up to 6 magnitude in NZ
after all we are on top of tectonic plates and ring of fire
our houses are built strong and sway with the quake haha
genmaxpain Apparently the last quake swept away all your punctuation.
is she expecting the Cascadia earthquake?
In ontario Canada you aren't allowed to touch the gas meter even if you're licensed only the distribution company is allowed to. And as a gas fitter that should have been done by a certified gas tech.
Well luckily every place doesn't need to follow the rules of Ontario, Canada.
I suppose he got the proper certification. Here in Germany it's different, the plumbing businesses here are licensed by the local distribution company. And they must be, otherwise they are not permitted to work on the gas pipes. They can do practically everything behind the meter, including the connection leading away from the meter. The input of the meter is sealed (yellow plastic sleeving, prevent to loosen the connection to the meter input), so if someones installing a bypass this would be a proof for stealing gas because you have to remove the seal. But in modern installations you can't actually do anything because the connections are crimped and not screwed. Distribution company layed the pipe into the basement, the rest, including the base of the meter, was installed by the plumber. Later a technician of the distribution company came and installed the meter. That's a pic of my meter, installed in 2013. Next to it on the left is the service entry for the electricity.
abload.de/img/img_5942zyjf6.jpg
@@Marcel_Germann wow I like your set up all pro press copper and that's real smart for putting a seal. We in ontario canada have to take a two year course and become licensed by the TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority)who issues us our license.
How do we know he isn’t a license gas fitter?
@@monchateauamoi3641 Actually the german vocational education isn't really comparable. The education for the job is round about 3.5 years, since this is a dual education you get the theory at school but in parallel you're already employed at a plumber business as an apprentice. So you get the theory in school and the practical work in the business. You'll have to pass two exams, one in the middle of the education and one at the end. After this 4 years in the evening school parallel to the job, or 2 years full time becoming a master plumber. To get the gas licensing you must have passed your exam at least with 50% in the discipline "safety and maintanance". Then you'll have to register to the local gas distributor. That's the typical way, but there are alternatives to get the permission, like several hundreds of hours courses including an exam at the end.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_education_system
This education systems is one of our strengths, Germany got one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in Europe. German companies which have plants in the US are actually introducing this system there. It is approved for 50 years now.
Did the guy leak test the gas line?
They don't have 5 hrs to show every single thing these people do. I also didn't see them hooking up the vaccum to the drill, but I'm assuming they did. These folks aren't idiots.
That's not gonna save u from the big one at all lol not gonna change how well built the house is and it's age it's a old house
How do you live in an area and probably grew up in the area of earthquakes and have no idea what to do.
"Victoria you're in good shape"
Erm I don't think so..
Second
8:11 no she's not
Some of the stuff that guy did looks like he went to home depot to get and cost less that $200 but they probably charged her several thousand
Fixing things is not hard. Experience, knowledge, and expertise are what you pay professionals for.
Sure ... some thin brackets and couple of wood screws anchored to a five-inche plates will prevent a multi ton house from shifting away ... as if the whole base of the house and the dirt underneath will stand still !!! come on TOH ...
FOMI1970 … All it takes is a couple of guys to move a multi ton car, right? Put a 2x4 on the ground and see if the same couple of guys can push that car over it. It really doesn't take much to stop the first bit of movement, which is probably all you need 80% of the time. It's really a numbers game in controlling damage with the smaller quakes.
H
I doubt those flimsy metal things will do anything
To be fair any house built with nails and screws is sitting on "flimsy metal things". Think about how many structures, like a deck for example, are bolted into the structure of the house with "flimsy metal things". The reason why it works is because the deck, properly built of course, is transferring the weight of the structure into the ground. The metal fasteners are there to keep the separate parts of the structure locked together. That is also what is happening in the example of the house in the video.The metal plates are there to bind the house to the foundation and attempt to keep the house from flying off the foundation.
"Before World War II, houses were often built so that they rested on their foundations with nothing but gravity to keep them there. When the ground starts shaking, gravity loses to other forces.
Retrofitters bolt the house onto a concrete foundation with 9-inch-by-9-inch steel plates all along the interior of the crawl space. They also add framing anchors every few inches. If the house is resting on cripple walls, they add plywood reinforcements." - The Nuts and Bolts of Securing a House to Its Foundation
January 20, 1994|ANNE LOUISE BANNON | TIMES STAFF WRITER
The bolts tie the house to the foundation so that the house stays connected, instead of sliding. And with multiple points of connection to the foundation, the house should be firmly tied during an earthquake. So, yes, these materials do work.
First
Those "sheer transfer ties" aren't going to do anything useful.
gantmj you obviously don’t know about structural support
Maybe the colonials should start building houses out of stone, with roofs out of concrete tiles, instead of living in sheds made of cardboard, wood and drywall... just a thought
Anthony Phillips when it’s windy I close my windows and watch Netflix... you need to be evacuated
These guys are scamming all of these homeowners for as much as they can before the "Big One" hits. After it hits, they are packing up and taking their money overseas to never be seen again. lol. What Warranty ?? haha
Yea I got the same feeling watching this. I wonder how much they charge for this.
Absolutely. Happens all the time here in Florida with hurricanes on all levels: Product manufacturers supplying roofing systems, windows, etc, home builders/contractors actually building the home, engineers/architects designing the home, etc. And guess what? These people are almost always not bound by contract law because hurricanes are considered an "act of God", so you can't take them to civil court when it fails to do what they said.
Why would bringing an old building up to code be a scam?
@@boobtube1212 - Bringing the building up to code is one thing, selling excess is another.
@@cup_and_cone What was excess in what the video showed? Securing the walls to the foundation, gas shutoff, and strapping the water heater I assume are code. Putty for vases and securing bookshelves to walls are presumably not code related but "scam" seems a little strong and I don't think its what @willdogs droid was referring to.
What a scam...disgraceful.
"Before World War II, houses were often built so that they rested on their foundations with nothing but gravity to keep them there. When the ground starts shaking, gravity loses to other forces.
Retrofitters bolt the house onto a concrete foundation with 9-inch-by-9-inch steel plates all along the interior of the crawl space. They also add framing anchors every few inches. If the house is resting on cripple walls, they add plywood reinforcements." - The Nuts and Bolts of Securing a House to Its Foundation January 20, 1994|ANNE LOUISE BANNON | TIMES STAFF WRITER
The bolts tie the house to the foundation so that the house stays connected, instead of sliding. And with multiple points of connection to the foundation, the house should be firmly tied during an earthquake. So, yes, these materials do work.
this is such a ripoff
agree wonder how many will buy into this
They’re not trying to save the house. Only stop it from collapsing on you
STOP WASTING MONEY...
I don't think she's in good shape! Lol.
What a big ripoff! What he did is pretty much useless just put some Teco connectors here and there. To do it correctly every stud, joist and roof must have the Tecos on them . Every corner of the house should have a rod from the roof plate down to the foundation plate. For the inside he put putty on the vase LMAO, the homeowner now think her house is safe if there is a earthquake, what a false sense of security.
I agree. This is nothing but making a profit from fear. If a large seismic event were to take place, nothing on Gods green earth would prevent total destruction. How much did it cost to install a few dabs of putty and a bunch of sheet metal T straps. You have got tp be kidding me, the placebo this company is selling is criminal.
You are welcome to publish your own video.
@@gene8172 100% agree.. almost in every video on TH-cam are comments like that and I always think "why don't you upload a video showing us the 'right' way to do it?"
It's a retrofit. You have to balance the ideal solution with what is achievable at a reasonable cost. Nobody's saying it's a perfect solution.
Homepros NYC... read in between the lines. The key here is it's SAFER that doing nothing.. and we all know this is NOT for the big one. Consider it like making your home kid proof. Not perfect but solves 80% of the smaller issues.
SORRY but THIS IS THE BIGGEST SAM I HAVE SEEN. Come on but for the gas shutoff. Stop making FAKE WORK. Prove that will work LEFT COST.