House of Questions - Page 2

Is it possible to do too much stabilizing?

Larson:  A lot of people want to shear wall the entire house. With Eichlers, you really don’t want to do that. I’ve heard them called ‘drunk Eichlers’ because they do, they kind of flop around during an earthquake. So there’s a lot of movement built into these homes, and if you take too much of that out, then you’re in trouble. Things are going to start moving that you don’t want to move, that never moved before, because now that transfer of energy has nowhere to go. So you don’t want to overdo it on an Eichler. Doing the moderate amount really is all you want. In addition to that, do some strapping and foundation bolts. That’s probably all you want to do, in my opinion.

Most mid-century modern homes have walls of glass, so what can you do with them?

Larson: Essentially, you want to replace the windows with dual-paned safety glass. That way, it breaks into little pieces [when impacted by a quake] and nobody gets hurt.

Fracker: I know that that’s a concern that a lot of people have because there is so much glass. The saving grace for the glass is lots of the homeowners have tinted the glass with film tint [that also has safety-film qualities], and that film can actually help hold the glass together. So, if you do have a crack in the glass—say, there’s been some movement, seismic or otherwise—then typically that glass will show up with a crack in the corner or something. But rarely, with the film tint, does [the glass] ever just break out or fall out of the window [framing]. I’ve never seen it happen with the film tint.

• For a more in-depth feature on earthquake reinforcement for mid-century modern homes, see 'Shake, Rattle...and Retrofit.'