Bracing for a Big One : Citations, Oct. 1 Quake Move Southland’s Building Owners to Seek Services of ‘Seismic Contractors’

Since the city of Los Angeles passed an ordinance in 1981 requiring that older masonry buildings be structurally reinforced to better withstand earthquakes, such “seismic contracting” has become a cottage industry, attracting construction companies more accustomed to putting up buildings than taking them apart and putting them back together.

Last October’s major quake has added new urgency to the work, drawing new competitors to the field and swamping the established companies. It has also, authorities warn, drawn fly-by-nights and scam artists.

Instead of working from an architect’s design, seismic contractors must follow engineering plans designed to buttress old walls and ceilings--plans that could cause catastrophic collapses if mistakes are made. After making costly miscalculations, some companies have dropped out of the field; others have stayed, developed expertise and expanded.

But unprecedented demand lately has created a shortage of experienced specialists, according to many industry observers. In addition to fears raised by the Oct. 1 quake, the demand is fueled by citations the city has begun issuing to owners of buildings that have not yet complied with the 1981 ordinance.

Once cited, a property owner must complete an engineering study in nine months and have the building strengthened within two years. Thus far, only 1,200 of about 8,700 targeted structures have been strengthened.

Some outside the industry refer to the strengthening process as “earthquake-proofing,” but that is a misnomer, according to seismic contractors and engineers. Among those eager to dispel the misconceptions is Ben Schmid, a Pasadena-based structural engineer who served on a committee that developed the language and regulations in the ordinance for the Los Angeles City Council.

Different Kind of Job

“Compliance doesn’t mean there will be no damage” after an earthquake, Schmid said. “The idea is to prevent the collapse of walls and minimize the chance of loss of life.”

Schmid, a consultant to the city on quake-related construction, said anchoring and reinforcing properties is very different from new construction.

“It’s dirty, tough work and typically done by semi-skilled people,” he said. “Very little of it is done by tradesmen (such as carpenters or plumbers). It’s piece work--a little here and a little there. Often, the contractor is doing more than one site at one time. This sort of work lends itself to smaller contractors.”

Although Schmid, contractor groups and government authorities have no firm estimates of the number of local firms involved in seismic contracting--an industry concentrated in quake-prone areas such as California, most believe that the number of qualified companies is inadequate. Among those holding that view is Allen Asakura, chief of the earthquake division of the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department, the agency that inspects buildings for their quake-worthiness.

Asakura is one of a number government officials and many industry observers concerned about the possibility of a growing gap between the demand for seismic services and the number of competent firms willing to do major projects.

“My concern right now is we have a shortage of good contractors,” Asakura said. “I hope the industry can meet the demand, but there is a concern about quality. So much work has to be done within a certain amount of time.”

Adries Godschalk, a former inspector for the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department, is pessimistic that the growing demand will be met with quality work. Godschalk now heads Seismic Construction, a Los Angeles firm that strengthens buildings. Demand and a big backlog of pending work orders have forced Seismic Construction to begin taking orders only for projects that can be started next year, Godschalk said.

“The city has put too much pressure on this industry,” said Godschalk, who believes the city should extend the deadlines for having property strengthened. The problems have been compounded by the Oct. 1 earthquake, which created “absolute havoc,” in the seismic industry, Godschalk said.

“It was just incredible,” Godschalk said. “The most immediate problem was stabilizing damaged buildings. . . . There may be a crunch in the future because people may not be able to find contractors to work for them.”

Godschalk said the ranks of expert seismic contractors cannot be expanded quickly because it takes time and experience. There are no special trade schools or uniform seismic contracting certification programs to learn the business.

Under the strengthening program, companies get contracts to buttress structures cited under the Los Angeles ordinance. Affected are commercial and residential properties--apartments and hotels with five or more units--constructed before 1933, when the city adopted more stringent building standards. Owners of single-family homes are not affected by the ordinance, but some homeowners have their properties strengthened to make their property more secure in the event of an earthquake.

Using city-approved designs developed for each building by private engineers, contractors employ a wide range of techniques to brace structures or make repairs. Contractors sometimes lift portions of roofs to install new walls or stronger beams. They use metal rods and anchor plates to strengthen connections between the roof and walls.

Sometimes they place a metal grid over the facade of a building and spray concrete over the grid. Other times they replace vulnerable brick or stone foundations with more resistant concrete bases. And they sometimes bolt floors to foundations to counteract possible shifting.

Some contractors are unwilling to accept the inherent uncertainties and risks associated with the work, according to Dailey Mayo, a Monterey Park-based sales manager for Dodge Construction News, an industry journal that publishes job opportunities for contractors. The original building plans for many buildings constructed before 1933 do not exist or are unavailable, forcing engineers and contractors to try to analyze the structure well enough to find all the weak points.

“When you have a leak, or if you’re working on a wall,” Mayo said, “you really don’t know what’s there. You don’t know whether something will fall or not.”

Some contractors avoid seismic work because of disputes that arise from unexpected difficulties or arguments over expenses associated with repairing damage that was undetected before the contract was signed. Unless the consumer has confidence in the contractor--”the kind of trust you have between a patient and a doctor”--there will be friction, Mayo said.

Many Uncertainties

Some engineers are reluctant to get involved in designing plans for property strengthening and major structural repair--the kind of work sometimes needed after an earthquake--for similar reasons, according to Ray Steinberg, a Van Nuys-based structural engineer.

“It involves,” Steinberg explained, “something they’re not used to--they’re not designing something from scratch.”