How to Protect Your Home During an Earthquake
Evaluate elements outside the home that are potential hazards., Make any necessary repairs to your home., Add support to cripple walls., Build better walls to make your home more earthquake resistant.Add steel frames or plywood panels to offset...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Evaluate elements outside the home that are potential hazards.
Trees that are old or leaning, electrical wires, and power lines can be detrimental to the infrastructure of your home during earthquakes.
The way to counter potential damage is to reinforce structures.For power lines and potential electric wires that might fall and cause damage, reinforce foundations and ceilings with concrete and plywood sheathing respectively to brace your house for falling objects.
Consider removing or cutting down trees that could fall onto the home.
Reinforcing your home with concrete for its foundation and plywood sheathing for your ceiling will help protect it, but so will ridding the surrounding area of things that could potentially fall and cause the damage you’re bracing it for. -
Step 2: Make any necessary repairs to your home.
Look at walls, your chimney, foundation, and roof tiles to inspect them for any potential weaknesses.
If you find that they have some, make those repairs before disaster strikes to prepare yourself for potential earthquake damage.Use additional plywood sheathing underneath chimneys to reinforce ceilings and prevent bricks and/or mortar from falling through the ceiling.
Fix roof tiles that are loose and anchor heavy roofing material properly on a roof frame to ensure the roof is strongly braced.
Add braces to chimneys to prevent it from falling over.
Make sure that they are steel collar braces. , Earthquakes can potentially shift cripple walls, so bracing them is necessary to support the floor and exterior walls of the home.Add 2x4 boards between vertical studs at the top and bottom of a cripple wall to brace it securely against the foundation. , Secure the frame to the foundation by installing anchor bolts through the frame and into the foundation., Sill plates are the horizontal part of the wall that vertical architecture like walls is built on.
It acts as a layer between the wall and the house’s foundation.
If they aren’t bolted down, an earthquake can make the sill plates shift.Bolts need to be long enough to penetrate through the plate and several inches of foundation every six feet along the exterior walls.
Hire a professional contractor to do this work for you, as it is extensive and must be done correctly. , Traditional, rectangular window frames are more susceptible to having their corners cracked and chipped as a result of pressure from the earthquake shifting the frames.
Windows can be preserved if you round out the corners instead of using the default angled corners most windows come with., Secure wall hangings, bookshelves, computers, and entertainment centers with flexible fasteners.
Have your refrigerator and your hot water heated bolted down to prevent gas lines from breaking if the quake causes them to fall over. -
Step 3: Add support to cripple walls.
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Step 4: Build better walls to make your home more earthquake resistant.Add steel frames or plywood panels to offset structural problems from quake damage.
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Step 5: Anchor sill plates properly to the foundation.
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Step 6: Install windows with round corners.
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Step 7: Restrain large equipment
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Step 8: furniture pieces
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Step 9: and appliances.
Detailed Guide
Trees that are old or leaning, electrical wires, and power lines can be detrimental to the infrastructure of your home during earthquakes.
The way to counter potential damage is to reinforce structures.For power lines and potential electric wires that might fall and cause damage, reinforce foundations and ceilings with concrete and plywood sheathing respectively to brace your house for falling objects.
Consider removing or cutting down trees that could fall onto the home.
Reinforcing your home with concrete for its foundation and plywood sheathing for your ceiling will help protect it, but so will ridding the surrounding area of things that could potentially fall and cause the damage you’re bracing it for.
Look at walls, your chimney, foundation, and roof tiles to inspect them for any potential weaknesses.
If you find that they have some, make those repairs before disaster strikes to prepare yourself for potential earthquake damage.Use additional plywood sheathing underneath chimneys to reinforce ceilings and prevent bricks and/or mortar from falling through the ceiling.
Fix roof tiles that are loose and anchor heavy roofing material properly on a roof frame to ensure the roof is strongly braced.
Add braces to chimneys to prevent it from falling over.
Make sure that they are steel collar braces. , Earthquakes can potentially shift cripple walls, so bracing them is necessary to support the floor and exterior walls of the home.Add 2x4 boards between vertical studs at the top and bottom of a cripple wall to brace it securely against the foundation. , Secure the frame to the foundation by installing anchor bolts through the frame and into the foundation., Sill plates are the horizontal part of the wall that vertical architecture like walls is built on.
It acts as a layer between the wall and the house’s foundation.
If they aren’t bolted down, an earthquake can make the sill plates shift.Bolts need to be long enough to penetrate through the plate and several inches of foundation every six feet along the exterior walls.
Hire a professional contractor to do this work for you, as it is extensive and must be done correctly. , Traditional, rectangular window frames are more susceptible to having their corners cracked and chipped as a result of pressure from the earthquake shifting the frames.
Windows can be preserved if you round out the corners instead of using the default angled corners most windows come with., Secure wall hangings, bookshelves, computers, and entertainment centers with flexible fasteners.
Have your refrigerator and your hot water heated bolted down to prevent gas lines from breaking if the quake causes them to fall over.
About the Author
Sarah Brown
Specializes in breaking down complex organization topics into simple steps.
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