Seismic Safety: Foundation Bolting

Close  

Select Video

• Overview
• Services
• Preparing

With Seismic Safety: Foundation Bolting 101

When it comes to seismic safety, the purpose of foundation bolting is to basically make sure that a house has enough strength and support to withstand an earthquake. Homes are prone to major structural damage during an earthquake. That’s why earthquake retrofitting is so important. We know so much more about earthquakes when it comes to the foundation of a home than we used to and since some homes have been around for decades it’s important to get in there and do some necessary changes and upgrades to the existing foundation of the home so that the home will not be displaced from its concrete during an earthquake.

If you don’t know a lot about earthquake retrofitting even having lived in a state that has earthquakes that might be because up until now you have not been a home owner or a building owner or an apartment complex owner. So, chances are you don’t know what foundation bolting and floor foundation work is all about.

Here is some basic information on foundation bolting. Foundation bolting basically means adding bolts to strengthen and improve the connection between the concrete foundation of a home and its wooden framing. The way this is typically done is by adding bolts through that piece of wood that lies flat on top of the foundation. It’s often called a sill or a mud sill. What you’ll find out is that there may not be bolts in place already or they may have become weak over time and are now too far apart from each other to provide any real kind of support if an earthquake where to hit. Therefore, foundation bolting and earthquake retrofitting is essential. In this case two types of bolts are usually used to do the job, expansion foundation bolts of epoxy-set foundation bolts.