Soft Story Retrofitting
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The city of Carpinteria, CA is in the process of passing a city-wide
mandatory seismic retrofitting program in an effort to make the city safer.
The ordinance would mandate owners of soft story structures in the area to retrofit those buildings with five years. Like other regions throughout Southern and Northern California, Carpinteria is hoping these mandatory seismic retrofits will minimize the risk of death, injury and destruction in the face of a significant earthquake. What is a Soft Story Building? A soft story building is a multi-story building in which one or more floors have windows, wide doors, large unobstructed commercial spaces or other openings in places where a shear wall would normally be required for stability as a matter of earthquake engineering design. A typical soft story building is an apartment building of three or more stories located over a ground level with large openings, such as parking garages or a series of retail businesses with large windows. |
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From past earthquakes, multi-story buildings with
weak and/or open front wall lines creating a soft story performed poorly and
collapsed. The goal of the mandatory retrofit program, is to reduce
structural deficiencies by the most economical and feasible method.
Without proper strengthening, these vulnerable buildings may be subjected to
structural failure during and/or after an earthquake.
Buildings that are most vulnerable have been identified with the following criteria:
The program does not apply to residential buildings with 3 or less units.
Buildings that are most vulnerable have been identified with the following criteria:
- Consists of 2 or more stories: wood frame construction.
- Built under building code standards enacted before January 1, 1978
- Contains ground floor parking or other similar open floor space.
The program does not apply to residential buildings with 3 or less units.