No area of California is without earthquake risk, but there are many ways to prepare your house to lower its risk of structural damage from an earthquake. Learn how earthquakes can damage your house, and find solutions that work for your homesite and construction-type. If one of these houses looks similar to yours, learn more about ways to strengthen it against earthquake damage.
Some types of houses built before 1980 may benefit from retrofitting with foundation anchoring, which reduces the possibility of a house sliding off of its foundation in an earthquake.
Cripple-wall houses have short, wood-framed walls between the foundation and the wood-framed first floor, and a crawl space under the house.
Because a post-and-pier house has no continuous concrete perimeter foundation, it is particularly vulnerable to shifting, and potentially collapsing, in an earthquake.
This house has one or more floors of living space over an attached garage.