Our CEO & Founder, Howard Cook
Howard got started in earthquake retrofitting after working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a Residential Earthquake Damage Inspector. He saw Bay Area residents first hand lose their greatest asset and their heart breaking attempts to put their lives back together. After the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 he resolved to spend the rest of his professional life protecting people from the consequences of earthquake damage. For him, retrofitting is a passion and gives his life meaning, it is not just a job. He volunteered to develop two retrofit code guidelines for the FEMA Brace And Bolt Program and was a retrofit expert on the Berkeley Disaster Commission. He wrote this 177 page website to give homeowners, contractors, and engineers the tools they need to protect our community.
How We Are Different
- We developed the Flush Cut Method. Bay Area Retrofit is the only company in California that uses it.
- We are the only seismic retrofit contractor in the U.S. that uses Mudsill Plates. Just ask one of our competitors if they use Mudsill Plates.
- We don’t use hardware unless it has been proven effective through rigorous government testing.
How Our Expertise Can Help You
This is one of our inspectors explaining to a homeowner what he needs to do and why he needs to do it. We think it is critical for our clients to know exactly what they are getting for their money. He is pointing at a short brick foundation built on top of a concrete foundation. This only seen rarely in Bay Area Homes. No book will tell a contractor or engineer how to retrofit this. Only someone who understands the earthquake resistance of both brick and concrete will know how to retrofit this foundation. We have done a lot of research on existing concrete foundations and wrote an entire article on brick foundations so we know exactly what to do.
The Go-To Retrofit Authority
- Vice Chair of a seismic retrofit building code committee used by the Brace And Bolt Program.
- Co-author of Standard Plan A used by the Brace And Bolt Program as well as building departments all over the Bay Area.
- Mayoral Appointee to the Berkeley Disaster Commission as a seismic retrofit expert
- Course Instructor: Principles and Practice of Earthquake Retrofitting 2014 presented by the Association of Bay Area Governments.
- Author of article “Seismic Retrofit for Cripple Walls”, The Journal of Light Construction. April 2006.
- Featured expert “The Hayward Fault. Predictable Peril.” KQED, Channel 9.
- Contributing Contractor “California Works to Prepare for the Big One”, PBS News Hour. This is a compilation of both the “The Hayward Fault. Predictable Peril” and the NewsHour documentaries.
- Featured Expert in the “S.F. Homeowners Need To Be Ready” in the S.F. Chronicle
- Source for this article in the New York Times
- Guest Lecturer “Retrofit Principles and Practice for the Home Inspection Industry” Sponsored by the Golden Gate Chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors.
- Keynote speaker “The Preservation of Historical Wood-Framed Buildings” Sponsored by The City of Victoria Heritage Foundation in British Columbia.
- Guest Lecturer: “Retrofit Principles and Practice for the Canadian Home Inspection Industry,” sponsored by the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors.
- Primary source for an article in the The Mercury News on Soft Story Retrofitting.
- Featured contractor in “The Danger Beneath” in the East Bay Express
- Residential Damage Inspector, FEMA. 1989-1994.
Things We Know That Most Others Won’t
Deciding who to hire is the most important decision you will make. Your retrofit is only as strong as the knowledge and skill of the contractor who does the work. Retrofitting is very specialized. Here are some questions your contractor should be able to answer.
We Do It Right No Matter What
Sometimes there are delays in completion times, and clients may think it means that we don’t know what we are doing. But we refuse to cut corners just to hurry things up and go on to our next job. We make sure a job is done well, even if we lose money, because our work might preserve your life’s savings, and maybe even save your life. We take this responsibility very seriously no matter how expensive it might be for us. When the earthquake hits, people will be happy we took the time to get it right.
