Library

Factsheet from HUD describing how to properly rebuild following natural disasters in Puerto Rico.

Brochure for utility customers describing installation of an excess flow valve to automatically shut off natural gas flow into a home in the event of a gas line rupture.

Article describing San Francisco and how impending seismic activity may affect modern skyscrapers.

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...

Technical study exploring the impact of different installation faults on heat pump performance in a single-family house.

Report summarizing commissioning, short-term testing, and analysis that occurred before, during, and just after the actual retrofit of the Bay Ridge project.

Paper describing the development and testing of an affordable net-zero energy house in Lenoir City, Tennessee.

Webpage describing the STEP campaign encouraging the use of smart diagnostic tools to reduce installation faults.

Research study presenting a unique opportunity to both identify and evaluate deep retrofit measures that are practical and potentially cost effective for the retrofit market, as well as review the cost effectiveness of the Passive House design approach for achieving energy savings in deep retrofits.

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...

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...

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 identifying differences between the requirements for construction documents for high performance housing and the documents that are typically produced for conventional housing.

Report intending to provide useful information as the DOE/BA develops and implements comprehensive communications and outreach strategies for demonstration homes.

Document serving as a starting point that features initial tools and resources for teams to start collaborating to continually improve the energy efficiency and durability of new houses.

Research study providing a comparison of selected retrofit activity typically done, versus that same retrofit activity approached from an integrated high performance remodeling and quality management perspective.

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 study determining how well high performance envelope and innovative cooling system interact to cost effectively reduce cooling energy use in this hot-dry climate.

Research study making several recommendations to whole-home program designers and implementers for improving the cost effectiveness and reach of whole-home programs.

Report evaluating a test home built in Atlanta, GA in the mixed-humid climate zone. The report outlines the features of the house, discusses the implementation of the energy efficient design, and presents the results of short-term characterization testing.

This guide and workbook offers practitioners with the knowledge to properly implement the measurement and documentation procedures required in the ANSI/ACCA 5.

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.

Report using data from various sources to characterize the impact on human health and property damage from indoor environmental quality and other hazards.

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

Report developed for Habitat for Humanity about lessons learned from demonstration retrofit projects undertaken by Habitat for Humanity affiliates in New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania; with building systems consulting and technical assistance provided by Steven Winter Associates.

Report describing seismic retrofit of historical buildings.

Report presenting results from whole-house monitoring efforts in hope that they may be useful for others moving towards zero energy homes.

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

Case study about affordable housing in a mixed, humid climate.

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.

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.

Products and specification for a State of California-compliant earthquake-actuated automatic gas shutoff valve.