Homeowners can get cash for earthquake retrofits. Here’s how

Are you looking for some financial help to make your home safer during an earthquake? Each year, the state’s Earthquake Brace and Bolt Program offers a limited number of grants to homeowners to help pay for seismic retrofitting of their homes. Applications for this year’s grants are accepted from now until November.

More than a million California homes need modifications, an upgrade that takes about a day to complete, according to Janelle Maffei, chief mitigation officer for the California Seismic Authority.

A standard earthquake retrofit can cost upwards of $5,000 in Southern California, a cost that is far too high for many. The Brace and Bolt Scholarship can help.

The grant offers eligible homeowners who have not yet modified up to $3,000 to help pay for cementing and closing costs. Low-income homeowners can qualify for an additional $1,000.

Society member Adrien Nazarian (North Hollywood) encouraged Californians to modify their homes, even if they weren’t given a grant.

“It’s a small cost, relatively speaking of the horrific damages and hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses that can be incurred once a home is destroyed,” he said.

What is seismic retrofit?

Earthquakes threaten to demolish the structure of the house from its foundations and collapse the walls that support it, making it unstable and uninhabitable. Seismic retrofits address this problem in two ways: by attaching the house’s frame to its concrete foundation and adding plywood trusses to reinforce the walls in the crawl space below the first floor.

Maffei said these two steps have proven to be the most effective way to mitigate the damage caused by the major earthquake. She said that if you own a home built before 1980, you should have reasonable doubt that retrofitting is necessary. New homes had to comply with building codes that were more in line with earthquake hazards.

To learn more about how to keep your home safe, read The Times’ guide to seismic retrofitting.

Who is eligible for the program?

To be eligible for the Brace and Bolt Program, you must:

Be able to prove that you own the home and that it is your primary residence. She lives in the EBB program area. Living in a home built prior to 1980, and you have a raised foundation or crawl space, or you live in a home that is on level ground or a slight slope, and you don’t already have a home that has been seismically modified.

To qualify for the supplemental grant, you must also be able to verify that your annual income is $72,080 or less.

How to apply

To submit your application for Earthquake Brace and Bolt, visit earthquakebracebolt.com/register. The last day to apply is December 1.

Since the program does not have enough funding to meet the demand, homeowners’ applications will be randomly drawn from the lottery. The EBB website warns that applicants “should not obtain a permit or commence modified construction work prior to their acceptance into the program;” Otherwise, they will be declared ineligible.

The $3,000 scholarship will only be paid after the applicant provides proof of work completion. A supplementary grant can be collected sooner, however, to reimburse the applicant for the cost of a building permit and a contractor’s deposit.

Do I really need to modify my home?

If you have an older home with a crawl space, the short answer is yes.

As Steve Bohlin, an acting geologist with the California Geological Survey, said: Most of us won’t die in an earthquake, but how well you survive depends on how prepared you are.

The fact is that the Big One will not be a catastrophic event in which part of the state separates from the continental United States, however, it will affect the lives of almost every Californian.

There is a 99% chance that if you live in California, you will be affected by an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater during your lifetime, Bohlin said.

Most Californians live within 30 miles of error, he said, “so being prepared and doing what you need to do to protect your life and property is critical.”

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