Commercial Building Retrofit
Our team at FEI Associates Consulting Engineers Specializes in the following Property Structures:
Tilt-Up
Tilt-up is a method of construction whereby large concrete panels are cast onsite and then raised into position with a crane.
Speed, cost of labor, accessibility, energy efficiency, and flexibility are major benefits of tilt up construction.
Retrofits for Tilt-Up buildings include roof to wall anchors, continuity ties, roof nailing, and steel braced frames.
(URM) Unreinforced Masonry
Unreinforced masonry buildings are generally buildings constructed prior to modern earthquake-resistant design. In earthquakes, the brick walls, especially parapets, tend to disconnect from the building and fall outward, creating a hazard for people below and sometimes causing the building to collapse. A typical retrofit for a concrete tilt-up building would include anchoring the walls to the floors and roof, adding interior shear wall, installing wall braces or other measures, and installing moment frames and grade beams.
Non-ductile Concrete Building
Concrete buildings constructed prior to 1977 are generally non-ductile concrete construction, meaning they lack sufficient structural reinforcement to withstand lateral forces and sustain gravity loads during a seismic event.
Retrofits for these buildings can include carbon fiber wrapped around the columns, stiffening existing elements such as column wrapping or jacketing, adding new concrete shearwalls to provide an uninterrupted load path, and strengthening existing walls with shotcrete and fiberwrap.
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