...Get My Home Retrofitted

The best place to start is at the Home Retrofit Class for Homeowners. If you take the class and find out your home needs to be retrofitted, there are two ways to accomplish it: doing it yourself or hiring a contractor trained on the new standards. By taking the Home Retrofit Class for Homeowners, you will have a better understanding as to which is the best method for you. Even if you already know that your home needs to be retrofitted and you are going to hire one of the trained contractors, we still recommend that you attend a class to understand the process and to be a better informed consumer.

Even before you take a class, you can read our EARTHQUAKE HOME RETROFIT HANDBOOK

• Chapter 1 - Home Retrofit Overview (pdf 760KB)
• Chapter 2 - Guide to Completing the Home Assessment Checklist  (pdf 1.33MB)
• Chapter 3 - Guide to Completing and Earthquake Retrofit Plan for Wood Frame Residential Buildings  (pdf 1.5MB)
• Appendices for Chapter 3 (pdf 800KB)

Resources

City of Seattle Building Permits & Prescriptive Standards

Department of Planning & Development
(206) 684-8850

(If your house is not in Seattle, you can find the numbers of participating in Regional Home Retrofit below) 

Homeowner Instruction, Self-Help Workshops, Tool Lending, Contractor Training/Referral

UW, Phinney Neighborhood Association, Project Impact
1-877-2-BOLT-IT

Loans

Seattle Office of Housing's HomeWise Loan Program
(Low-interest loans for low to moderate income Seattle homeowners)
(206)684-0244

Regional Home Retrofit

• Bellevue Planning and Community Development Department
  (425) 452-6800
• King County Building Services Division (DDES)
  (206) 296-6600 -General Info
  (206) 296-6797 -Permit Appt
  
• Kirkland Fire & Building Department
  (425) 828-1144
  (Seismic Retrofit Classes for Homeowners - taught by Roger Faris)
• Pierce County Building Inspection
  (253) 798-3741
• Redmond Building Division
  (425) 556-2473
  (425) 556-2456(fax)