We carried the CEA insurance for a few years while my husband did some “seismic retrofits”.. then we dropped it.
In our case our house is early/mid 60’s era and the building codes have improved since then.
We also had the soils report from the original development – and had it confirmed when we did a big construction project – we’ve got good dirt… no issue of liquifaction.
The retrofits included:
– adding more diagonal bracing. (As walls were opened for other reasons, he’d retrofit bracing and insulation.)
– adding more sheer wall strength – especially in the corners. (Replacing sheet rock with plywood.)
– Adding more foundation/sill bolts.
– Adding strapping between second floor and first floor.
– Adding strapping between second floor and roof.
– removing some brick that was very 60’s decorative – to remove the weight load.
