$ 3,000 quake retrofit grants offered

Homeowners in state can use funds to fix a common structural flaw in residences.

Officials Wednesday began accepting applications for homeowners to get grants of up to $ 3,000 to earthquake retrofit single- family homes with a common structural f law that can cause houses to fall off their foundation.

Registration ends Feb. 20, and is run by a program that receives money from the state and the nonprofit California Earthquake Authority. Authorities expect as many as 1,600 grants to be available, nearly triple the number of grants available last year.

Homeowners may register at earthquakebracebolt.com.

Homes in more than 150 ZIP codes in California will be eligible for the grants. In Southern California, they include areas of Los Angeles, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and San Bernardino.

Single- family homes that qualify for the grant are typically built before 1979 with a few steps above the ground. The heavy house can rest atop a f limsy wood- frame perimeter that isn’t bolted to the foundation — when a quake hits, the house can topple or slide off. Engineers say it’s like pulling the rug out from under the house.

To reattach an intact house to its foundation, an owner might have to pay to lift the entire structure several feet and pour a new concrete foundation, then lower the house, at a cost as high as $ 400,000.

By contrast, the cost of a preventive retrofit is usually $ 2,000 to $ 10,000, with an average price of $ 5,000, according to the California Residential Mitigation Program, which administers the grants. The solution is generally simple: add metal rods to attach the wooden house to the concrete foundation, and plywood to add stiffness and strength to keep the house on its foundation.

There are more than 1.2 million houses in California estimated to be particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because of how they were constructed.

The $ 3 million in state funding — approved by Gov. Jerry Brown last year — allows officials to expand the grant program to homes in more areas than has been offered in previous years. The grants are income- tax exempt at the state level, officials said.

The California Earthquake Authority, a publicly managed nonprofit established by the Legislature in 1996 that operates with private funds and through the sale of earthquake insurance, is pitching in $ 1.8 million for the program.