A soft-story building is a multi-story structure built with a first floor that is open in nature, much less rigid (soft) than the floors above. There are many examples of buildings with soft-story conditions including multi-family apartment buildings with tuck-under parking or subterranean parking as well as retail centers with open storefronts and minimal reinforcement on at least one elevation. The general “openness” of the first floor creates the opportunity for structural damage during an earthquake because at least one elevation of the ground floor level lacks proper shear reinforcement to support the building.
It’s essential to assess your building’s earthquake risk and perform a seismic retrofit when recommended to protect a building’s value, limit liability and maintain its marketability.
Most retrofits include the addition of concrete footing, new steel moment frames and drag lines.
It’s important to assess your building’s earthquake risk and perform a seismic retrofit when recommended to protect a building’s value, limit liability and maintain it’s marketability.
