What does Soft Story mean?
Retrofit Pro Portal - Nov 21, 2019 - 1 min read
Updated: Dec 11, 2019
What is a soft-story building?
A soft-story building is a structure which has a weaker first floor and is unable to carry the weight of the stories above during an earthquake. The first floor generally would have large openings in the perimeter walls such as garages, tuck under parking or even large windows.
Here in Los Angeles, these types of structures have become very popular because of the rapidly booming population and need for storage and parking space.
There are some major considerations to make when seismic planning for a Soft Story Building or before performing a Soft Story Retrofit.
