Earthquake Home Retrofit Permit
What Is It?
We want to help you to protect your home against earthquake damage by speeding up the application process for Earthquake Home Retrofit Permits (previously known as Project Impact). We also provide you with suggestions, called prescriptive plan sets, on how to retrofit your home. These plan sets help you obtain the Earthquake Home Retrofit Permit quickly and easily. They also eliminate the need to hire a design professional to develop drawings. If your project does not meet the requirements of our prescriptive plan set, you can also submit a voluntary seismic retrofit designed by an engineer.
Our home retrofit plans address common locations of earthquake damage to single-family homes by following the ABC of home earthquake retrofits: anchor the home to a foundation; brace the wall between the foundation and the first floor; and connect that wall to first floor framing.
How Much Does It Cost?
Our fees are based on your estimated value of work, labor, and materials. Earthquake Home Retrofit projects that use our prescriptive plan set qualify for reduced permit fees. All fees are subject to an additional technology fee. See our Fee Subtitle for details.
How Long Does It Take?
We usually do our initial review of Earthquake Home Retrofit Permits in two weeks. If your retrofit is designed by an engineer, your project may qualify for a subject-to-field-inspection permit.
Steps to Get Your Permit
Determine if your house qualifies. Complete Table 1: Eligibility for Use on Sheet S0 of the plan set to see if you can use prescriptive plan sets to retrofit your home.If your home does not qualify, you can still do seismic retrofitting, but you will need to work with a structural engineer.
Prepare your plans. Follow the instructions for use on Sheet 01 of the prescriptive earthquake home retrofit plan set. There are also several useful examples at the end of the plan set, see Sheets X1 through X5.If you submit a voluntary seismic retrofit designed by an engineer, your plans will need to be stamped by an engineer and include a location plan, foundation and framing plan, structural notes, and structural details.
Submit your plans. Whether it's a prescriptive plan set or if an engineer prepared your home retrofit plans, you may submit them to us like a subject-to-field-inspection permit. Otherwise, you can submit your plans for screening after uploading all your plans and documents. If all looks good, we will process your plans and you can pay your fees.
Pay fees. You pay most of your fees when you submit your application.
Pay final fees. We will notify you if you need to pay any final fees before we issue your permit.
Print your permit. We will notify you when we have issued your permit and the documents are available in your Seattle Services Portal. Print the permit, approved coversheet, and approved plan set.
Display your permit. Place your permit in a visible location on the project site.
Get related permits. You may need to get additional permits or approvals from other departments.
Know when to call. We need to inspect your project:
- At the time of first ground disturbance
- Before you pour the foundation
- Before you cover the framing
- After you install insulation
- After you complete your construction
- For plumbing work
- For electrical work
- For side sewer work
- When you are working with water service lines
Contact us. Call our 24-hour inspection request line at (206) 684-8900 before 7:00 a.m. on the day you need the inspection. You can also request an inspection online.
Close your permit. Your permit information will be archived in our electronic document management system.
Schedule a final building inspection. See the construction inspections page for when to call us and how to schedule your inspection.