How much does a complete residential earthquake retrofit cost?
There is no such thing as a standard house or standard earthquake retrofit. Accordingly, this is not a simple question to answer in the abstract. Larger and more complex houses, such as houses with split floor levels, cost more to earthquake retrofit than smaller and simpler ones. Ease of access will also affect your retrofit cost. The typical cost to completely earthquake retrofit a medium size home with one floor level, a crawl space area relatively free of obstructions and in good condition, and with wooden framed walls in the crawl space (referred to as cripple walls) is about $4,000 to $7,000. A house of similar size and good access, but with no cripple wall (where the floor platform sits directly on the concrete foundation), can have connection improvements installed for $3,000 to $6,000. Larger homes, homes with many floor levels, steep hillside homes, and homes with finished basement area rooms, or homes with rooms over garages will cost more to retrofit. In these situations, a
