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By Sharon Hayes


A soft story building is a building that has multiple stories and a floor or two have wide doors, windows, large unobstructed spaces or openings where a shear wall should be. The soft story is less resistant and substantially weaker than the floors above it. Examples of these buildings are those with ground level story being used as a parking garage or commercial spaces for businesses.

Earthquakes cannot be predicted with precision so preventive measures must be done by the people in order to prevent buildings from collapsing by strengthening their weak floors. The law made it mandatory for buildings to have retrofitted jobs done to it in order to pass the standards they have given and withstand possible earthquakes. You can look for a professional soft story contractor Los Angeles can provide to help you with complying with the law.

Find contractors online that specialized in retrofitting jobs in your area. They could also be found in the yellow pages and in the pages for advertisements in the local paper. Make a list of contractors that you could possibly hire and begin gathering information on them.

Ask people you know for any recommendations. They may recommend someone not on your list but take note of them as well so you can do further research about them. These recommendations that they have given are those that they experienced quality service and are very satisfied with the work they received.

Inquire about their experiences and the number of buildings they already have retrofitted. Visit them if possible and check the quality of work they have done and you could talk to the owners of the building too. Get their opinions about the work done and its quality as well as how fast and clean they did it.

Read testimonials and reviews online about their service. Previous customers will give ratings based on how satisfied they are with the work done and you can check if they have any complaints against the contractors. Read their websites or online forums about them to know more about their background.

Inquire what time of the day they do the retrofitting job usually and how many hours or days will it take. Discuss the time that most tenants are not around inside the building so they could choose to work in those times to avoid distractions. Tenants may need to move out though for safety purposes so clarify these things with them.

Ask for the estimated total price of the services they will be providing. Take also into consideration the possible profit lost during these times when the buildings are not operational. You can also ask for assistance from the government if you cannot afford the cost required for it through a public financing option.

Soft story is usually used for parking spaces so it may be possible for you to not able to use it for a while during the retrofitting. A compensation from the government will be given so you could park in other parking spaces and pay the fees there. Comply with the program and avoid having to face the law if you are unable to do it. This would also make your building safer and stronger for all of its occupants.




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