Do Los Angeles homes need retaining walls, caissons, earthquake retrofitting, and drainage control?
For this week’s blog, we thought we’d tackle some important ways to protect Los Angeles homes and commercial properties, for example using retaining walls and caissons, earthquake retrofitting, and drainage control measures, which can all help protect Los Angeles homes and commercial properties, especially those that are built on a steep slope.
What are the advantages of caissons and retaining walls
If you live in a Los Angeles home, especially one build on a hillside, or below a hill, you are probably quite concerned about the safety of your home and are wondering, can caissons and retaining walls help keep my home and all who live in it safe? How are caissons and retaining walls built? These are great questions, which we can help answer!
Homeowners and commercial property owners in Los Angeles know that their buildings are vulnerable to damage from destructive natural forces such as mudslides, landslides, and earthquake seismic activity. One of the best methods for protecting such properties involves constructing retaining walls, strengthened with caissons, to control erosion and keep soil secured on sloped areas. Retaining walls are practical, cost-effective, and built to complement and add versatility to a property, immediately boosting its market value.
To protect homes using caissons and retaining walls, a qualified retaining walls contractor will first lower caissons, which are basically large “cages” built our of steel rebar, into shafts that are pre-drilled into the ground. Then, concrete is poured into the cages to add stability to these structures. Retaining walls, on the other hand, typically incorporate a sunken concrete “grade beam” for extra stability, and include a French drain installation to funnel rainwater away from the property and into street drainage, where it rightly belongs. The retaining wall itself is constructed from shotcrete (concrete that is applied at high velocity) as well as reinforcement steel rebar which adds tensile strength. What’s also nice about retaining walls is that a variety of decorative aspects can be added to them, to enhance their usefulness, attractiveness, and their “curb appeal”.
What are the advantages of earthquake retrofitting
If you are a Los Angeles homeowner or a commercial property owner, you know that today, more than ever before, it’s critical to earthquake retrofit such buildings to safeguard them from the many earthquakes that cause so much damage in the greater Los Angeles region. Seismically retrofitting properties can help safeguard precious lives and important property!
Top seismologists and building scientists all agree that there is an urgent need to continue the push for earthquake retrofitting buildings in Los Angeles to safeguard them from the destructive forces of earthquakes. Homeowners and commercial property owners should prepare today for the real and very imminent threat of seismic activity! For example, buildings can be protected from catastrophic structural failures that threaten life and property by using metal bolts and plates to attach the structure to the concrete footing and framing that makes up their foundation. When a building is firmly attached to its concrete foundation, it can remain firmly anchored when the next violent “Big One” hits!
It’s also important to note that some measures are also required inside homes and commercial properties, to ensure that they are safe for their inhabitants during an earthquake. For example, heavy objects within the structure such as furniture, appliances, mirrors, should all be bolted down to prevent them from becoming dangerous debris as the structure sways and shakes!
What are the advantages of erosion control systems
Many of our clients call us and ask us about erosion control systems, which have become more and more important to Los Angeles homeowners and property owners over the past few years. The recent Los Angeles wildfires have left homes sitting on unstable soil that can transform into dangerous mudslides and landslides after even a moderate rainfall. As such, residential and commercial property owners in Los Angeles must use soil erosion control techniques to safeguard precious lives and properties!
A major threat facing property owners in Los Angeles is damage caused by soil erosion and heavy rains. The many wildfires that burned through our region have left in their wake dangerous soil that, after even moderate rains, can swiftly transform into mudslides and landslides. The downward force of soil and debris propelled by gravity can devastate any structure in their path. Sadly, folks living or working in buildings that are in the path of mudslides and landslides often have little or no advance warning of the impending catastrophe.
Soil erosion is especially common around homes or commercial properties that are built on a slope, as water will run downhill and into any structure standing in its way. On the way down, water collects soil, sediment, and debris that can, in some cases, literally sweep a building off its foundation. Owners of buildings built on a slope must control where and how water is draining by employing a variety of cost-effective hillside stabilization techniques. These include building concrete caissons, retaining walls, storm drains, and French drain installation. Other erosion control methods employ specialized matting, mesh, as well as decorative gabion baskets to can control the speed of run-off water as well as add a beautiful aesthetic value to the property.
Since 1977, the professionals at Weinstein Construction have retrofitted over 8,000 buildings, helping countless property owners with their seismic retrofitting needs. We are also experts in drainage control and erosion prevention, as well as building retaining walls, basement waterproofing, caissons, gabion baskets, and French drain installation. Call us today at (877) 958-8741 for a free, no-obligation inspection of your property’s needs!
