Who will retrofit my house?

October 18, 2006 4:36 PM

I want to retrofit my early-60's rambler so it's less likely to kill me during an earthquake (and so I can get earthquake insurance). Any recommendations for companies or contractors in the Seattle area?
posted by The corpse in the library to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

I live in Seattle. We used to have earthquake insurance, and our agent told us that it was vanishingly rare and that we were very lucky to have it. Then our insurer stopped offering it. Does your current insurer offer earthquake insurance to owners of retrofitted homes? Are you sure? Might be a good idea to nail that down before spending the bucks if getting the insurance is a major reason for doing the work...
posted by carterk at 6:07 PM on October 18, 2006

Seems to me that with modern engineering, putting the premiums into doing a bang-up job on the retrofit is potentially a better investment. ?
posted by mmdei at 6:17 PM on October 18, 2006

I was looking into the same thing and found this information from the city -- apparently you can take a class, and they also have a page of contractors. Here's another part of the site with PDFs on how to get the permit and do it yourself. Truly a horrific website, but some good info.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 6:38 PM on October 18, 2006

Looks earthquake-proof to me!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.
posted by spock at 9:17 PM on October 18, 2006