What is ESS?
Earthquake Soft-Story (ESS) is a pilot grant program that provides eligible California homeowners up to $13,000 toward a seismic retrofit for homes with a living space above the garage, also known as a "soft story." The California Residential Mitigation Program (CRMP) is providing these grants to incentivize homeowners to complete a retrofit if their house has this soft-story vulnerability.
Funding for ESS is provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program, administered by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), and managed by CRMP.
How It’s Done – FEMA-P1100 Construction Plan Set
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) created FEMA-P1100, a pre-engineered set of construction documents that provide details for contractors to complete the soft-story seismic retrofit, in many cases without requiring additional input from an engineer or architect. Your ESS retrofit must be in accordance with FEMA P-1100. CRMP makes this approved plan set available to contractors, provides contractor training and ESS program support to make the process as easy and cost effective as possible.
There may be situations where an engineer will still need to be consulted. Contractors should first determine if the FEMA P-1100 plan set can be used to seismically retrofit a house before recommending an engineered solution.
The ESS Retrofit
For homes with a living space over the garage, also known as a "soft story," the ESS retrofit strengthens the garage walls and structure, including the walls on either side of the garage door. This helps prevent the living space over the garage from collapsing into the garage during an earthquake.
How the ESS program works
Homeowners who meet certain criteria, such as their house being located in an ESS program area and having been built prior to 2000, may register for the opportunity to receive a grant of up to $13,000, to help them pay for a soft-story retrofit.