Seismic Retrofit in Berkeley, Close to the Hayward Fault

A crumbling brick foundation under a wood-frame building red-tagged after the 2014 South Napa earthquake. Photo: Department of Homeland Security. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Public Aff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Clues that a Berkeley house stands on cripple walls

If you climb a few steps to reach the front door and there are vents in the wall below the first floor, the house very likely rests on cripple walls, the short stud walls between the concrete and the floor framing. Berkeley's own retrofit design guidelines point to those two signs. The same guidelines describe what counts as weak: no anchor bolts to be found, bolts averaging more than six feet apart on a one-story house or four feet on a taller one, more than a fifth of the bolts badly corroded, a decayed sill, or cripple walls with no plywood or OSB on them. Pre-1980 houses on raised foundations are the type the statewide Earthquake Brace + Bolt program targets, and Berkeley owners have used it widely.

The work

The retrofits a Berkeley crawlspace tends to need

Brace-and-bolt, permitted for the refund
To count toward the transfer tax refund, the seismic work goes on its own permit application and plan set, with the words "seismic safety work for transfer tax reduction" in the scope. Plans that pass plan check are stamped as eligible. For a standard crawlspace job the inspector comes twice: once to see the foundation bolts, blocking and framing, and again at the end for the cripple wall plywood, the metal hardware, and working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Rooms built over a garage
Where the lowest story is a garage with bedrooms or a living room above it, the wide door opening and the little solid wall around it are the weak point, not a crawlspace. FEMA wrote a separate plan set for this house type, P-1100-2B, and Berkeley lists it among the standards that qualify for the refund, next to ABAG Plan Set A and FEMA's crawlspace set, P-1100-2A.
Engineered designs on steep lots
On a downhill lot the cripple wall at the low end can be far taller than the four feet the prescriptive plan sets allow. Berkeley then accepts plans and calculations from a California registered design professional, designed either to 75 percent of the forces in Chapter 16 of the current California Building Code or to the forces of Chapter 23 of the 1976 Uniform Building Code. Ask which of the two the engineer is using.
Substandard foundations and water heaters
Berkeley's list of refund-eligible work goes beyond plywood and anchors. Repairing or replacing a substandard foundation counts, and so does anchoring an existing water heater. Work that prepares for a future addition does not. When a new foundation is part of a bigger remodel, the city wants documents showing which share of the cost was seismic, so ask the contractor to price it as a separate line.

Permits and local rules

City and state programs behind a Berkeley retrofit

Seismic retrofit rebate on the transfer tax
Buyers, sellers and owners of residential buildings can claim it for voluntary upgrades: foundation bolting, shear walls, cripple wall bracing, substandard foundation repair, chimney work and water heater anchoring. Work must be finished before the sale or within one year after it; a written request to the Finance Department can add up to one more year. Expenses from October 17, 1989, the day of the Loma Prieta earthquake, onward count. After the work, the application goes to Building & Safety with receipts.
City of Berkeley (opens in a new tab)
Earthquake Brace + Bolt for Berkeley owners
The statewide Earthquake Brace + Bolt program helps owner-occupied houses and small buildings of one to four units with a raised foundation and unbraced cripple walls. Berkeley reported in January 2025 that more than 600 of its homeowners had received rebates since March 2016. Places are awarded by lottery during a registration window that opens once a year, so sign up for notice on the program's site before planning the job around it.
City of Berkeley (opens in a new tab)
Mandatory soft, weak or open-front retrofits
Chapter 19.39 of the Berkeley Municipal Code reaches wood-frame residential buildings of five units or more whose construction permit dates from before 1978. Owners on the city's soft-story inventory must hire a design professional, who follows the city's SWOF framework guidelines, and must tell prospective tenants in writing that the building is potentially hazardous in an earthquake. The city adds buildings to the inventory from time to time.
City of Berkeley (opens in a new tab)

State license for this work: B General Building, C-8 Concrete. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (opens in a new tab).

Part by part

Where Berkeley's ground changes the plan

The hills along the fault
The city's earthquake planning map draws a surface fault rupture zone as a band along the base of the hills, running northwest to southeast. Above it, a cripple wall on a steep lot can step down the slope and pass four feet, and then an engineer designs the retrofit instead of a standard plan set.
North Berkeley hills
Berkeley's building code findings single out the north hill area as the part of the city most susceptible to landslides, citing soft and unconsolidated sediments, groundwater and steep slopes. The state geological survey also rates the potential for earthquake-triggered landslides high across the hills, which an engineer weighs before drawing bracing.
West Berkeley and the bay flats
Mapped liquefaction runs from the shoreline to San Pablo Avenue in northwest Berkeley and to McGee Avenue in the southwest, and covers Aquatic Park. Bolting a house to its foundation does not stop loose, wet ground from weakening under it, so ask whether the foundation itself deserves a closer look.
Codornices and Strawberry creeks
The liquefaction map follows both creeks into the flats, and the seismic landslide map marks their banks. A house beside either creek can sit on softer ground than its neighbors a block away, which is worth knowing before a contractor writes a prescriptive bid.

Before you hire

Questions to put to a Berkeley retrofit contractor

Will the seismic work have its own permit, with "seismic safety work for transfer tax reduction" written into the scope?
Which standard will the plans follow: ABAG Plan Set A, FEMA P-1100-2A or 2B, or a registered engineer's design?
Will you find, measure and photograph the existing anchor bolts and their spacing before you quote?
Is the address in a mapped liquefaction or landslide zone, and does that change what you propose?
Does your license include B General Building? Confirm the number and class at cslb.ca.gov.

Questions

What Berkeley owners ask before bolting a house down

We just bought a house in Berkeley. Can we still get part of the transfer tax back for a retrofit?

Yes, if the work is voluntary seismic work, has its own permit and is finished within one year of the sale. If it will not be done in time, you can claim the part that is finished, or ask the Finance Department in writing, within that first year, for a good-cause extension of up to one more year.

Does a retrofit we did years ago count toward Berkeley's refund?

It can. Eligible expenses go back to October 17, 1989, but the work still has to meet one of the city's standards, such as Plan Set A, the FEMA P-1100 plan sets or an engineer's design, and it needs the permit and final inspection behind it. Call Building & Safety before you apply to confirm it qualifies.

Is a seismic retrofit required to sell a single-family house in Berkeley?

No. Berkeley's mandatory programs are aimed at unreinforced masonry buildings and at wood-frame soft, weak or open-front buildings with five or more units, and an owner is only required to act once the city has placed the building on one of its inventories. A voluntary retrofit done around the sale can still earn part of the transfer tax back for the seller or the buyer.

Why did the Berkeley inspector check our smoke alarms on a crawlspace job?

Because the city's final inspection for a Plan Set A or FEMA plan set retrofit includes smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, not only the plywood and hardware. Have them installed and working before you book the final, or the inspection can fail on something that has nothing to do with the foundation.

Our hill house has bedrooms over the garage. Does the crawlspace plan cover it?

Usually not. A garage story with rooms above is a different weakness from a cripple wall, and FEMA's P-1100-2B plan set was written for it. Berkeley accepts that plan set for the transfer tax refund. If the lot is steep or parts of the house sit on cripple walls too, expect an engineer to design it instead.

Keep exploring

More on seismic retrofit work and Berkeley

Foundation and seismic retrofit in other cities

Other trades in Berkeley

Guides and smaller jobs

Where this page belongs

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

Bolting and bracing Berkeley houses for the next Hayward quake

Get quotes for seismic retrofit work in Berkeley

Clues that a Berkeley house stands on cripple walls

The retrofits a Berkeley crawlspace tends to need

Brace-and-bolt, permitted for the refund

Rooms built over a garage

Engineered designs on steep lots

Substandard foundations and water heaters

City and state programs behind a Berkeley retrofit

Seismic retrofit rebate on the transfer tax

Earthquake Brace + Bolt for Berkeley owners

Mandatory soft, weak or open-front retrofits

Where Berkeley's ground changes the plan

The hills along the fault

North Berkeley hills

West Berkeley and the bay flats

Codornices and Strawberry creeks