Los Angeles Soft Story Retrofit Engineering

Engineering is the first step in your Sinai Los Angeles soft story retrofit project. Our engineering team starts your soft story retrofit engineering process by first analyzing your property and determining your options (yes you do have options). But although there are many options, our goal is always same, "what's the best way to strengthen your structure against a seismic event?"

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All soft story retrofit projects are unique. It's never a "one size fits all" every project has it's challenges. So our Sinai Engineers look at your Los Angeles project from every angle before deciding the best way to proceed. But first and foremost on our mind, is always ensuring the building will meet all structural standards of the Los Angeles City ordinance, while  minimizing the impact on the building’s functionality and architecture. In other words, when your Sinai soft story retrofit project is finished, visually, we want it to look like we were never there.

 

Another key element that's always on our mind is soft story retrofit costs. Our engineers are not only fanatics about structural safety, but also of the financial ramifications on your bottom line. We had a client tell us one time "I can spend a million dollars but I don't want to waste one". We feel the same way. Our goal is to design a work flow that delivers the highest quality soft story retrofit at the lowest possible price in Los Angeles.

 

That's why planing is crucial to the soft story retrofit engineering process, since the construction cost is based on the engineering details which we submit with the soft story retrofit plans for Los Angeles permitting purposes. It's all about the details at this point and we don't want to miss a thing, and you're about to find out why.

You need to understand, the city of Los Angeles has an extensive checklist of documents and calculations (it's pretty intense) including a requirement for certification from a Professional Engineer (that would be us). Any plans submitted not meeting the specifications are returned with corrections for re-submission. This slows down your soft story retrofit project, and yes, costs you more money.

Another thing you may not know is building elevations are required for your soft story retrofit project. And here's the rub, the city of Los Angeles is very unlikely to have copies of the original plans of Los Angeles soft story buildings, given they were constructed prior to 1978. This can be a problem because unless you, the building owner can provide an “as-built” elevation of your building, this will be additional hours of site measurement, engineering and drafting.

Our approach to every project is what we call "Soft Story Retrofit Value Engineering". The essence of Value Engineering is the thought process of evaluating all compliant construction solutions for your unique situation. By going through this process, we end up with the most cost efficient, most structurally safe engineering plans tailored exactly to your Los Angeles  buildings situation. Or as our account puts it "affordable construction solutions tailored for your property".

 

We will provide a full set of engineering plans for your review and approval prior to submitting to Los Angeles City for the next step, and that is acquiring your soft story retrofit permits.