Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Rules Mean Many Brick Chimneys Won’t Return

Thousands of homeowners who lost brick chimneys in the Jan. 17 earthquake will be forced to rebuild them under stringent new guidelines that are likely to lead to the use of substitute materials, Los Angeles building officials said Tuesday.

An ordinance approved by the City Council requires homeowners to hire an engineer, use steel reinforcement and anchor their chimneys to the frames of their homes.

“What this is going to do, for all practical purposes, is outlaw (the rebuilding of) brick chimneys in this city,” said Warren O’Brien, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. “It’s just not practical in earthquake country.”

The City Council on Tuesday also took a series of other earthquake-related actions: requiring that damaged buildings be rebuilt to current seismic safety standards, imposing stricter construction reviews for outdoor brick walls, ordering the retrofitting of about 2,100 warehouse-style tilt-up structures, and asking that Los Angeles County firms get a preference in bidding for cleanup and other contracts.

It is the toughened scrutiny of chimneys, though, that will have the most widespread impact on Angelenos. Los Angeles building and safety officials estimate that 15,000 brick chimneys might have been damaged in the quake.

The owners of chimneys that require more than a 10% repair will be forced to comply with current codes that call for steel reinforcement. They will also be ordered to hire an engineer to design a method of anchoring the chimney to the home’s frame.

Most wood frame houses are not substantial enough to provide an adequate anchor for a brick chimney--and the structures can be dragged down or bricks can rain into homes, building officials said.

O’Brien said it will be difficult to win approval for a brick chimney without additional steel reinforcement in the home. “Your typical tract house will not be a candidate for a brick chimney,” he said.

Homeowners will be allowed to rebuild with less scrutiny if they choose lighter-weight chimneys consisting of metal flues and stucco. Composites or so called thin-bricks can then be attached to the exterior to give the appearance of a traditional chimney, building officials said.

“It looks like a brick chimney without the weight or the danger,” O’Brien said.

But representatives of the masonry industry said that chimneys built since the mid-1940s included steel reinforcement and survived the earthquake well. They said the city would be better served by ordering older chimneys to be reinforced with steel, rather than trying to discourage the use of bricks altogether.

“They are overreacting to an obsolete situation,” said John Chrysler, a staff engineer with the Los Angeles-based Masonry Institute of America.

“They are hurting a big industry, and this is not the time to take away jobs,” said James Amrhein, the organization’s executive director, who planned to write a letter of protest to Mayor Richard Riordan.

O’Brien said alternative construction methods would be equal to, or less expensive than, traditional brick chimneys. But Amrhein said the alternatives would cost about 10% more.

In other actions, the council:

* Voted to require building permits for outdoor brick walls, many of which also failed in the quake.

* Ordered seismic strengthening of about 2,100 older tilt-up buildings constructed before building codes were improved in 1976. The buildings are made of concrete walls poured on the ground and then propped up and attached to adjoining walls. They are most commonly used for warehouses and storage facilities.

* Required that the damaged portions of all buildings be brought up to current seismic standards, which generally provide for more secure attachments of walls to building frames and floors.

* Agreed that in cleaning up debris and performing other tasks for the city, Los Angeles County firms will be given top priority. The bids of local firms will be reduced by 10% before they are compared to proposals by firms from outside the county. Councilman Richard Alarcon said his proposal will help keep more rebuilding jobs in the Los Angeles area.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a program that may give owners of damaged properties automatic property tax reductions.

Reviving a plan first tried in the aftermath of the 1992 riots, County Assessor Kenneth Hahn’s staff will automatically begin the paperwork for lowering the assessed value of damaged properties discovered in routine neighborhood inspections.

Hahn said he expects 150,000 to 200,000 applications from property owners seeking lower assessments. An additional 7,500 to 10,000 property owners could benefit from the plan to automatically reassess properties, Hahn said.

Under California law, property owners may seek lower assessments if the value of their home has dropped more than $5,000.

Overall, total property tax revenues could drop $42 million to $56 million because of earthquake damage, Hahn estimated.

The assessor’s office used automatic inspections after the 1992 riots and granted lower assessments to several hundred property owners who had not sought them.

Times staff writer Frederick Muir contributed to this report.