Taking off the drywall - what seismic upgrading can I do?

4 years ago

We are pulling the drywall off our bedroom walls so we can re-insulate. Since we live in an earthquake zone I am wondering if there is any seismic retrofitting we should do while the drywall is off.

The bedroom is on the top floor of the house and only supports the roof, so we're not looking at cripple wall upgrades or bolting the mud sill to the foundation for this project. (We will be doing that for another project).

I spoke to a seismic specialist and she didn't think there was much to do on the upper floor of the house, but since the walls are going to be off anyway... I was wondering if adding some I post caps or shear angles would be a good idea. Thoughts?

It's a 1965 home so earthquake-proofing wasn't on the radar back then.

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Comments (4)

tozmo1
4 years ago
try posting this on diychatroom.com There's a lot of good advice from pros and experienced amateurs there.
S T thanked tozmo1
res2architect
4 years ago
It depends on where the bedroom is located. Is it in a corner? Is there no bracing at the corners? The foundation connection and first floor walls will be where seismic resistance matters most.

Post some photos.
S T thanked res2architect
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Seabornman
4 years ago
You might try the Reddit forum r/StructuralEngineering. Real engineers have been known to post there
S T thanked Seabornman
S T
Original Author
4 years ago
The bedroom is on the top floor of the house in the corner (the basement has a cripple wall.... and will be a totally separate project that we will probably contract out to experts). Once we get the drywall off I'll post some photos. I realize its not the most important part of the house to seismically update, but since the drywall is going to be coming off we will probably add some post caps (if we can retrofit them) or framing angles and hurricane ties just to tie each layer of the house together a bit better.