Soft Story Reinforcement in Los Angeles & The San Fernando Valley, CA
Structural failures of multi-story buildings in California
Many reinforced concrete structures suffer from minor to catastrophic damage during earthquakes. The most commonly observed damage is cracking and falling of the walls. But the most striking of these observations is the structural failures of multi-story buildings which have soft ground floors used for parking.
Since buildings with sound construction should not experience any major damage caused by ground motion, possible damage is due to inherent weaknesses in the structural system, design, detailing, poor material quality and unsound construction practice.
Weinstein Retrofitting systems is the leading soft story retrofitting contractor providing free estimates on earthquake retrofitting in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oxnard, Glendale, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Lancaster, Inglewood, Torrance, 
the San Fernando Valley and surrounding California areas.
Earthquake damage risks in California:
- Soft story effects
- Poor detailing of structural joints
- Inadequate reinforcing steel
- Inappropriate anchoring of beam and slab reinforcement
- Insufficient reinforcing steel in columns with large aspect ratio
Steps to soft story retrofitting:
- The concrete slab is broken up.
- New reinforcement beams are setup into place underneath the old concrete poles that hold the structure.
- New concrete is being poured to hold the new beams.
- The structure is stable again.
