Library

A fact sheet providing homeowners with guidance on properly securing water heaters to prevent them from tipping in an earthquake.

Fact sheet describing improvements in the earthquake resistance of residential and commercial new construction through the adoption into the International Residential Code of seismic provisions including those developed by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).

Website providing links to building codes, seismic codes, code enforcement, safe buildings, and seismic retrofitting.

Document describing precast concrete earthquake design considerations including connections, detailing, and forces, among others.

Website providing an introduction to the concepts and principles of seismic design.

Standard using deficiency-based and systematic procedures that use performance-based principles to evaluate and retrofit existing buildings to withstand the effects of earthquakes.

Standard using deficiency-based and systematic procedures that use performance-based principles to evaluate and retrofit existing buildings to withstand the effects of earthquakes. The current version of this standard was published in the year 2017, and is available in both digital and print...

Fact sheet for natural gas customers describing city’s seismic gas shut-off valve requirements.

Reports describing a mathematical methodology for assessing the seismic performance of buildings.

Report promoting public safety and welfare by reducing the risk of earthquake-induced damage to existing homes.

Report promoting public safety and welfare by reducing the risk of earthquake-induced damage to existing homes.

Report providing retrofit measures intended to significantly reduce damage and increase occupant safety for existing buildings.

Report seeking to teach building contractors and building inspectors the correct methods for doing typical seismic retrofits that have been designed by an engineer or architect or described in a prescriptive standard.

Newsletter containing five articles focused on seismic retrofitting.

Article outlining the key issues related to the protection of the building envelope against seismic forces.

Description of California Senate Bill SB 1898, which requires the sale of new seismic gas shutoff devices sold in California to be certified by the State Architect.

Fact sheet describing guidance concerning lot selection and building siting considerations for coastal residential buildings, including factors that constrain siting decisions, coastal setback lines, common siting problems, and suggestions for builders, designers, and owners; also published in FEMA...

Manual that identifies certain leakage limits for ducts and outlines procedures for testing ducts for conformity with air leakage limits that are set forth in a designer’s project specification.

Fact sheet describing field validations of a smart ventilation system to assess its effectiveness in assisting low-load homes in humid environments by maintaining acceptable indoor humidity conditions while ensuring adequate ventilation and indoor air quality.

Fact sheet outlining the research behind how smart ventilation controls boost energy efficiency and indoor air quality, including research findings from seasonal temperature, timer, and real-time weather-based controls showing that all three systems showed potential for energy savings while...

Initiatives of smoke-free housing policies in New York State.

Toolkits for residents and owner/managers who live and work in federally assisted housing.

Standard that defines the roles of and minimum requirements for mechanical and natural ventilation systems and the building envelope intended to provide acceptable indoor air quality in low-rise residential buildings; published in the year 2019, and is available for preview and purchase at the...

Standard that describes the minimum requirements for residential buildings to achieve acceptable indoor air quality via dwelling-unit ventilation, local mechanical exhaust, and source control. This version of the standard was published in the year 2022, and is available for preview and purchase at...

Standard 680 establishes definitions, classifications, test requirements, data requirements, ratings, operating requirements, marking and nameplate data and conformance conditions for residential air filter equipment.

Guide providing guidance on conducting seismic risk assessments for buildings. The link goes to the current version of this standard, which was published in the year 2016 and is available for preview and purchase. Previous editions of this standard were published in the year 2016, 2007, and 1999...

Standard describing methods for installing radon mitigation systems in existing residential buildings three stories or less in height which was published in the year 2021 and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link.

Practice providing a guide or standard to undertake seismic risk assessment of properties. The current version of the standard was published in the year 2016 and is available for preview and purchase at the link. Previous versions of the standard were published in the years 2016 and 2007, and are...

Detailed requirements for testing, exposure modeling, and allowable limits for modeled indoor air concentrations.

Bill requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission to revise the safety standards for freestanding clothing storage units such as a dressers, bureaus, or chests of drawers to include testing related to tip overs and new warning requirements for all such products entering the U.S. market; passed...

Report recommending strategies and approaches that the Federal government and other stakeholders may take to encourage and aid States and local communities in the adoption of the most current building codes.

Document targeting retrofit program managers, retrofit contractors, policy makers, academic researchers, and non-governmental organizations that work to realize energy savings from home energy upgrades (HEUs).

Article describing three ways to strengthen the roof-to-wall connections in an existing home.

Article defining structural design loads and ways to calculate them, including dead loads, live loads, soil lateral loads, wind loads, snow loads, earthquake loads, and other loads.

Research project evaluating the pre-and post-retrofit energy consumption of a marine climate retrofit, compare actual energy use to original predictions, and identify opportunities for cost savings in other similar retrofits in this climate.

Report providing a selected compilation of seismic rehabilitation techniques and guidance on which techniques are commonly used to mitigate specific seismic deficiencies in various model building types.

Presentation describing how to make a Corsi-Rosenthal Box for air cleaning.

Article describing a field study that test ventilation performance in nine homes and found current ventilation was inadequate to remove PM2.5 and CO2 levels; however, a directly exhausting range hood can reduce peak PM2.5 concentrations by 75% or more.

Fact sheet describing building codes, seismic codes, and code enforcement.

Report describing seismic retrofit of historical buildings.

Standard 55 specifies conditions for acceptable thermal environments and is intended for use in design, operation, and commissioning of buildings and other occupied spaces; is the current version of the standard, which was published in the year 2021, and is available for preview and purchase at the...

Blog article summarizing the effects of extreme heat on air quality and lung health.

Webpage for the United States Geological Survey for the Department of the Interior.

Article describing the impact of increasingly stringent ventilation standards on multifamily buildings, highlighting the inefficiencies and challenges of exhaust-only ventilation in tightly sealed enclosures, the complications of achieving balanced ventilation, and the unintended consequences of...

Webpage from Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) on identifying key problem spots on unreinforced masonry chimneys and how to retrofit them to withstand seismic forces.

This study uses a computer simulation approach to examine the energy and indoor air quality implications of passive and hybrid ventilation systems.

Article describing how adhesives can be used to make homes in high-wind locations stronger and how adhesives could be too effective resulting in overloading foundation anchors under earthquake loads.

Document presenting analysis results, focusing on relative humidity (RH) excursions, which are defined as unique events of indoor RH above a threshold.

Research report that validates Pinhole Insulation®, offering a cost-effective, minimally invasive solution for enhancing insulation and air sealing in enclosed roof cavities, improving R-value by 60% compared to traditional methods.

Preliminary results of two monitored lab homes constructed to represent the thermal characteristics of typical existing Florida homes are presented.