Once again, we are in the Rainy Season at our fair city of Los Angeles! Some folks are carving a pumpkin, others are putting together their shopping list for Thanksgiving, and yes, some of us are buying holiday presents, because we’re worried that store shelves will be empty when we finally decide to go shopping – what a year 2021 has turned out to be! [...]
What are Gabions? Gabions are decorative galvanized wire baskets that are filled with ornamental rocks, glass chunks, or other material of your choice. Such baskets have a dual purpose! For one, they have tremendous curb appeal and look incredibly attractive! But a gabion basket can also offer homes and commercial structures tremendous protection, for example, when it is used as a retaining wall that fights [...]
If your foundation is damaged and you are wondering whether or not such damage can be repaired, the answer is often yes! Many foundations can be repaired quite easily if the damage is not too extensive. For example, foundation cracks up to a ¼-inch wide can be filled with epoxy that solidifies and reconnects the two portions of the concrete foundation together. And foundation repair [...]
Foundation Repairs in Los Angeles Foundation repairs in Los Angeles are very common because the soil Los Angeles homes are built on is made out of soft clay that expands during the rainy seasons and contracts during the dry seasons. Such movements can cause concrete foundations that sit above the soil to become brittle, drop, buckle, and crack. Other natural forces can also damage a [...]
Homeowners and owners of “Soft Story” commercial properties know that they have an urgent need to retrofit their buildings to safeguard them from the destructive forces of earthquakes. Soft-story structures are multi-story buildings that have large open spaces on their first or second floors, instead of walls that are typically required as part of a stable earthquake engineering design (one example is an apartment building’s [...]
In some of our previous blogs (see links at the end of this page) we discussed the mandatory requirements of the City of Los Angeles’ soft story retrofitting program, which identifies buildings vulnerable to structural failure from the effects of an earthquake. In this blog, we discuss the potential cost of soft-story retrofitting! What are “soft-story” buildings? Soft-story buildings are multi-story structures that have one [...]
In our last two bulletins we explained the importance of Los Angeles consumers hiring only licensed, bonded, and insured contractors to work on residential and commercial property jobs. We also discussed where consumers can go to determine whether or not a contractor is licensed. In this third blog in our three-part Consumer Affairs Bulletin series, we provide additional tips on how consumers can protect themselves [...]
Last week we explained the importance of Los Angeles consumers hiring only licensed, bonded, and insured contractors to work on residential and commercial property jobs. In this second blog in our three-part Consumer Affairs Bulletin series, we discuss how consumers can actually find out whether or not their contractor is licensed! Los Angeles County undercover sting operations always find unlicensed contractors! On a regular basis, [...]
In a three-part blog series which we kick-off today, we will explain the importance of Los Angeles consumers hiring only licensed, bonded, and insured contractors for home improvement jobs, including earthquake retrofitting, foundation repair and replacement, basement waterproofing, and caissons work. What does it mean to be “licensed, bonded, and insured”? The expression, “licensed, bonded, and insured” gets used quite a bit in the construction [...]
Here’s what we know about concrete! There are two things you know for sure about concrete: it will be hard, and it will crack! Cracks in concrete foundations and walls are fairly common. Some cracks are the result of “shrinkage” of the concrete that is a normal part of the concrete’s curing process, and in such cases, the cracks will not pose a structural concern [...]
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