Get financial assistance to Brace + Bolt your home’s foundation now
Some Alamedans were shaken by the 3.9 magnitude earthquake that was centered in Dublin at about 7:45 p.m. Monday evening, while others said they didn’t feel a thing. Yet the tremor impacted BART, causing delays of up to 20 minutes systemwide, according to a KRON News report. Trains ran at reduced speeds while BART maintenance crews conducted track safety inspections.
If BART felt it, our homes likely did, too. Sometimes those of us who are accustomed to earthquakes may not be shaken by the small ones, but our homes’ crawl spaces and foundations may be. And the bigger the tremor, the worse the probable damage. There is a 63% likelihood of a nearby earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.7 (fallen buildings, broken gas and water lines, fires) in the next 30 years, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Is your house prepared for that? It can be. The Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) program, developed by the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) offers California homeowners money for bolting and bracing your home’s foundation in order to limit possible earthquake damage. EBB has helped thousands of California homeowners complete these retrofits.
You can get up to $3,000—sometimes more, depending on your situation. In an Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) seismic retrofit, the foundation is “bolted” to the frame of the house, and when there are walls called “cripple walls” in the crawl space under the house, they are “braced” with plywood. This helps prevent the house from sliding or toppling off of its foundation during an earthquake. An EBB seismic retrofit is only done on wood-framed, pre-1980 homes with a raised foundation.
All of Alameda—both 94501 and 94502—is included in the EBB programs. To qualify for an EBB residential retrofit grant, you must meet the following criteria:
- You must own and live in the house.
- The house must be located in an eligible ZIP Code.
- The house must be built on level ground or a slight slope.
- The house must have wood-framed construction.
- The house must have been built before 1980.
- The house must have a raised foundation or crawl space.
- You must not have previously completed a brace and bolt retrofit at the house.
Get more information and register for the Earthquake Brace + Bolt program now.
