Seattle Apartments earthquake retrofitting (hardwood floors, renting, home)

[quirky_alex]

I'm moving to Seattle in a month or two and will be renting, probably in the Capitol Hill district (I posted about that specifically about a month or two ago). One reason I love the area is that I love living in old renovated buildings (i.e. 1910s-1950s) - original hardwood floors, unique vintage features, etc. However, I recognize that Seattle is possibly due for a big earthquake sometime in the next 50 years and the older buildings (especially unreinforced masonry buildings URM aka old brick buildings) are especially vulnerable to earthquake collapse and damage, but can be retrofitted to be reinforced. Of which Capitol Hill has a large concentration -

An updated map of Seattle’s brick earthquake risk shows Capitol Hill concentration | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle

Any suggestions for how to find out what retrofitting has been done to a building? I know I can ask the property managers/owners, but is there anywhere I can look up city building records easily? That map shows the unreinforced masonry buildings that have or haven't been retrofitted, so that's a start.

And what kinds of retrofitting should I be looking for?

If I do look at newer buildings, from what years on are they built more safe from earthquakes? I know no building is truly 100% earthquake resistant, but the construction makes a big difference.

[Hemlock140]

You can put any address into the King County Parcel Viewer website and it will give ownership, tax information and more under the Property Report dropdown. One item there is Permit History. If there are none, chances are there was no upgrade done, since most would require a permit. One red flag is in the "building quality" field, Low or Low/Average would put me off.

[quirky_alex]

Thanks for the advice!

[mkarch]

Just to be safe you could sleep in one of these:

urban foxhole,smart product technology,underground bunker | Smart Product Technology

[quirky_alex]

Nice! I should save up for that before I move :P

(I was waiting for a humorous/sarcastic response to roll in)

[CrazyDonkey]

At least you know that older brick buildings have survived strong earthquakes in 1949 (7.0), 1965 (6.5), 1996 (5.3), and 2001 (6.8). As to a future mega-quake, which might hit tomorrow or 500 years from now, all bets are off.

[es_em]

That CHS article is going to be the most user friendly for you. The City's DPD website has lots more info (Unreinforced Masonry Buildings - What & Why - Seattle Department of Planning and Development) but, honestly, it's way more than you should concern yourself with. Unreinforced masonry here doesn't do well with our smaller-big quakes. But if (when) the big one happens, nothing here is going to do well.

Also, you should probably know that most of those old brick buildings you like so much (I do too, I lived in 1920s buildings for the better part of 20 years) are not renovated. A very few here and there are, but most are not. This means maybe just one outlet in the kitchen (nothing's grounded) and no outlets in the bathroom. Laundry is in the basement. No garbage disposals or dishwashers. No insulated windows. And, lathe and plaster walls that make hanging things an exercise in determination. But they do have good soundproofing between units and many have really good radiator heat for the winter. And I always had beautiful fixtures and varying degrees of beautiful hardwood floors.

[quirky_alex]

Oh no, that's good to know about the renovations! I lived in an old apartment building like that in Kansas City, no dishwasher or disposal, laundry in the basement, hardwood floors were peeling, radiator heat, but it was a great location and cheap ($575 for 1.5 bedrooms! nothing like that in Seattle) so it worked for me. My current place is Dallas is a wonderfully renovated 1911 home turned fourplex that has all the modern amenities and is very nice and big with lots of storage. I know I'm not going to find something that nice (or big) in Seattle, but if many of the older buildings aren't that renovated, maybe all these factors will sway me toward newer construction. Thanks for the tips so far.

[kyled]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

You can put any address into the King County Parcel Viewer website and it will give ownership, tax information and more under the Property Report dropdown. One item there is Permit History. If there are none, chances are there was no upgrade done, since most would require a permit. One red flag is in the "building quality" field, Low or Low/Average would put me off.

That's an interesting website, really handy. I do want to point out, however, that it doesn't seem to list all of the permits so using that in the way you've described wouldn't really work. From what I've seen permits issued after 2008 are much more likely to show than prior to that. I imagine they're still working on getting permits into the database.

[Garethe]

It's good your thinking about this. I've experienced earthquakes in old masonry buildings and let me tell ya, the expression "shake, rattle, and roll" lives up to it's name. Not to say that won't happen in more modern buildings, but I did notice a difference.

Good luck on the hill, it's a nice neighborhood.