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Old 12-20-2010, 08:37 AM
 
99 posts, read 220,208 times
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Who needs an Earthquake proof house when you have Earthquake insurance.
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Old 12-21-2010, 01:31 AM
 
Location: Fairbanks, AK
1,753 posts, read 2,903,826 times
Reputation: 1886
Insurance can't replace lives.
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Old 12-21-2010, 07:18 AM
 
Location: Connecticut is my adopted home.
2,398 posts, read 3,834,581 times
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We live between Bootleggers Cove and Turnagin where the 64 quake did it's worst in Anchorage. We used to have earthquake insurance but our company cancelled all such policies in Alaska a few years ago.

Most of the houses around us withstood the 64 quake as did a rental that we have in Spenard. In a remodel we added another layer of plywood laid in the opposite direction of the subfloor for shear between floors, foundation, interior and exterior support strapping to both homes. Other than that and a few common sense precautions, we just take our chances.
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Old 12-21-2010, 07:22 AM
 
Location: Connecticut is my adopted home.
2,398 posts, read 3,834,581 times
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Sheet rock earthquake cracks are easy to fix! Get you a tube of toothpaste and fill in the cracks!

I had a non-handy friend complain that the toothpaste trick another friend had suggested to her for filling nail holes wasn't working only to find out that she used gel toothpaste!
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Old 12-21-2010, 07:51 AM
 
Location: Wasilla, Alaska
17,823 posts, read 23,452,578 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AK-Cathy View Post
We live between Bootleggers Cove and Turnagin where the 64 quake did it's worst in Anchorage. We used to have earthquake insurance but our company cancelled all such policies in Alaska a few years ago.

Most of the houses around us withstood the 64 quake as did a rental that we have in Spenard. In a remodel we added another layer of plywood laid in the opposite direction of the subfloor for shear between floors, foundation, interior and exterior support strapping to both homes. Other than that and a few common sense precautions, we just take our chances.
The last time I checked with State Farm about two years ago, they were asking $0.33 per square foot annually for earthquake insurance, which comes with a 15% deductible.

No structure is earthquake-proof, but wood-framed homes are some of the most quake resistant structures. I like your extra sub-flooring idea, I had not thought of that. My home is relatively new (2003), so it has not experienced any big quakes ... yet.

It is important to keep quakes in mind when hanging pictures, shelves, or anything that might be in a precarious location. Like you said, take common sense precautions. It all depends on how much you want to clean up afterward.
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Old 12-21-2010, 08:03 AM
 
Location: Charlotte, NC
11,839 posts, read 28,955,935 times
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I think I've only seen one earthquake resistant house come up for sale in the MLS. It was somewhere in Wasilla.
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Old 12-21-2010, 02:03 PM
 
Location: Palmer
2,519 posts, read 7,033,517 times
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Default Rance's House

He has a wood frame house insulated with spray in foam. I don't know what his foundation is like, but a home like that is glued together and is extremely sold. Not only that but it's very well insulated.

Now if you are sitting good soil and have good foundation and your house is tied together well, you should ride out an earthquake fine.

Some houses are just not on good soil, if the soil turns to jelly you are in a mess. If you are on a bluff and it's not stable, you will slide over along with the rest of the bluff.

Most of these houses that went through the 64 earthquake fine still might have a few cracks in their foundations but are generally fine and that is because they had enough steel in the concrete.
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Old 12-21-2010, 08:28 PM
 
Location: Naptowne, Alaska
15,603 posts, read 39,829,023 times
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My house is small despite being two story. Yet I've got a solid 10" x 16" footing (loaded with rebar) and 5 courses of block with fortified bondbeam and tied into the footer with more rebar and cement. I dug the 4 foot down to gravel, watered and compacted the heck out of the pad. I'm sitting on very good gravel base. The bed upstairs shimmies a little and the chandaliers sway when we get a good shaker. I have heard the place pop once or twice over the last 10 years during a good jolt.
I have visions of the place tipping over on it's side and still holding together if we ever get the ground swells from a 9 pointer!
I'll just have to get a crane and pick it up and set it back on the footings!
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Old 12-21-2010, 11:05 PM
 
Location: Anchorage
1,923 posts, read 4,715,922 times
Reputation: 871
Quote:
Some houses are just not on good soil, if the soil turns to jelly you are in a mess. If you are on a bluff and it's not stable, you will slide over along with the rest of the bluff.



that's call liquefaction. Love that sciencey stuff.
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Old 12-21-2010, 11:46 PM
 
Location: Valdez, Alaska
2,758 posts, read 5,288,511 times
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It is apparently a bad idea to build an entire town on a riverbed at the head of a fjord in a highly seismically-active area.

I don't know about most of the houses here (lots of them are modulars that were put up during the pipeline days), but we're buying a heavily insulated log-frame house that appears pretty stout. Should stand up to a pretty good shaker, I'd think. Tsunamis are another issue though...
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