Seismic Upgrades & Earthquake Retrofit

What a seismic upgrade includes

• Foundation bolting — anchoring the house to its foundation so it can't slide off in a quake
• Cripple-wall bracing — plywood shear panels on the short walls between foundation and floor, a common weak point
• Shear walls & hold-downs — reinforcing walls and tying the structure together with a continuous load path
• Soft-storey reinforcement — strengthening garages and open areas under living space
• Post-and-beam & crawl-space upgrades — bracing and connecting older support systems
• Chimney & masonry hazards — addressing the heavy elements most likely to fail

Why older North Shore homes are vulnerable

The South Coast of BC is one of Canada's highest earthquake-risk regions, and North and West Vancouver are full of pre-1990s homes on steep, sloped lots — a combination that concentrates seismic loads. In most of these homes the roof, walls, and foundation were never fastened together to resist sideways movement. The fix isn't rebuilding — it's retrofitting the connections so the house moves as a single unit. Our guide to seismic upgrades for older homes walks through the details.

Engineering-led, built by specialists

Seismic work is only as good as the connections you can't see, which is why it's engineering-led. We coordinate the retrofit design with a structural engineer, then build to that specification — the same structural rigour behind our structural repair and foundation work. Often a seismic upgrade is done alongside a foundation repair or a renovation, when the structure is already open and the cost of upgrading is at its lowest.

Our process

1. Free assessment. We look at how your home is built and where the weak links are. 2. Engineering. A structural engineer designs the retrofit and provides stamped drawings where required. 3. Fixed-scope quote. Clear scope and schedule before work starts. 4. The retrofit. Clean, contained work — usually without you leaving home. 5. Warranty-backed handover.