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Comment by shostack | Hacker News Reader

As someone who lives near the fault in Redwood City and has an older single story wood frame ranch,Mehta are my best options for protecting my asset and life?

Is earthquake insurance worth it?

What about retrofitting for earthquakes? I've read some pretty scary stuff that even retrofits done with permits don't have much consistency between them and no guarantees. Not even sure how to find a reputable retrofit contractor because I'm not sure how to judge the quality of their work since we haven't had a big one recently.

What should my priorities be for solving for all of this?

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The best guide I've managed to find was by Simpson Strongtie. They manufacture loads of structural bracketry used in building construction and seismic retofits.

As far as I could tell, the most important components are to make sure your sill plates are firmly attached to the foundation (with big washers on the bolts going through the sill plates or the Simpson UFP or some other plate), shear walls, and post caps. I talked to a Simpson field engineer (they actually answer the phone) that essentially confirmed this.

http://www.strongtie.com/resources/literature/seismic-retrof...

This is super helpful, thanks for sharing. Do you know how to go about finding a qualified person to install this stuff? I really don't know how to judge their work or what questions to ask a contractor beyond asking if they install the things you mentioned above.

No, sorry. I started down that path, got frustrated, and eventually just did it myself.

Protecting your assets? Insurance.

Any contracting service is incredibly contractor-dependant (as you've surmised).

Single story home? Really look at making your own go-bag. Take a survival course, not because you'll be in the woods picking berries, but because you'll learn transferable ways of looking at the (natural?) resources around you and how you can use them to survive or thrive.

https://www.verlocal.com/search?&page=1&keyword=survival

Have a go-bag in your car and by your bed (that include emergency rations and bottles / jugs of water, clean underwear, a toothbrush, etc). I bought a few cheap pop-up tents when they were on sale at woot.com. You can bet I'll be happier during a disruption of services than my neighbors who don't have even a basic set of supplies put together.

My theory is: Odds of a severe earthquake in the next 50 years are let's say 1/50. Do you spend $100k+ on earthquake retrofit, or spend $20k on insurance that'll let you rebuild? (my numbers are completely made up, btw).

Well, you have to purchase earthquake insurance anyway, and a single-family home is "less" dangerous than a multi-story home. Look at pictures of wood-frame earthquake damage and figure out what your state of mind would be after you run outside and your house ends up like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=wood+frame+earthquake+damage...

Figure out your go-bag situation, learn how to use it, take a survival course, keep lots of water handy, buy a tent, and then only worry about it in order to keep your supplies and skills fresh.

Since you have a house, also run a 55 gallon drum / trash can setup out in the back yard.

https://www.google.com/search?q=trash+can+survival

Hope that helps!

The insurance premiums and deductibles for earthquake insurance are sky high, so many are of the mindset that it just isn't worth it (of course regular insurance won't cover you at all in that case). Are earthquake retrofits really $100k? This guide seems to indicate they are relatively inexpensive. [1]

[1] http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub/CSSC_2005-01_HOG.pdf

Ahh... figured out my miscalculation... RENTERS insurance for earthquake is very inexpensive, I didn't factor in that you'd need OWNER (ie: structure) insurance.

The estimates for contracting work (seismic reinforcement) seem ludicrously low to me, but I don't have any basis for that opinion as I've not had to work with contractors here in the Bay Area.

I just find it hard to believe that doing major structural reinforcements to your home would be in the $20k range.

Earthquake insurance is probably a waste for most homeowners because the deductible is so high. You would probably be better off putting that money into structural renovation to make the house better able to handle an earthquake. Make sure the frame is properly anchored to the foundation. http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/residents/planset/

Plus, in the event of a huge Earthquake, you'd probably have access to FEMA funds anyway.

If you have natural gas line connected to your house, one thing you should consider is installing the auto-shutoff valve. It would really suck if your house survives the quake, and then goes out in a massive fireball because of a gas leak.

http://www.earthquakecountry.org/step1/gassafety.html

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