Soft Story Retrofit:

This soft story retrofit was just completed in Piedmont, CA.  While the contractor rebuilds the structure, current codes require moment frames to be erected in the basement.  Based on approved engineering plans, we fabricated two moment frames onsite.  Beam sizes were W8x28 and W6x15.  All steel was moved by hand into the basement through a small window just large enough to crawl through.  All welding was done by SMAW using 5/32″ 7018 electrodes.