Soft story buildings feature first stories that are much less rigid than the stories above, making them especially susceptible to earthquake damage due to the large, unreinforced openings on the ground floors (such as garages) as well as within their wood-frame construction.
Also know as “seismic retrofitting,” earthquake retrofitting involves modifying your house’s structure in order to make it more resistant to ground motion, seismic activity, or soil failure. It is your best protection against the constant seismic activity in Southern California, of all sizes.
As part of our seismic retrofitting services in Southern California, CXC Contracting installs helical piers – a critical step in keeping buildings safe from earthquakes.
More involved than floor leveling, house leveling is the process of making adjustments to your house’s foundation in order to bring the entire structure into level.
Your entire house rests upon a foundation, which is the fundamental support systms. Numerous problems can result from a cracked, weak, and poorly designed foundations. It is important to detect and repair these issues before they cause major damage.
Many of us take for granted that the floors of our house are level. In fact, very few floors are. While a microscopic amount of variance in level is normal, substantial level differences can cause a number of problems.
Much like a seatbelt protects you in a car, house bolting will protect your home. It is simply the process of securing your house to its foundation, so that during seismic activity, it does not slide off the foundation, which can cause serious damage.
Water is an extremely damaging element, and every house must have proper drainage systems in order to keep water flowing away from the structure. Small issues -- if improperly addressed or left without repair -- can often turn into major problems later on.
Although it is necessary to all life, water can be one of the most damaging elements to any structure. Making sure that your house is waterproofed against rain, sprinklers, and any other water feature is critical to the life of your home.
Mainly consisting of a trench covered with rock or gravel, the purpose of a french drain is to redirect groundwater and surface water away from your house, or any other structure on your property.
Depending on the way your house sits on the land, it may require a sump pump in order to remove water that accumulates in the structure (often in the basement or crawl space).