How to Take Care of the Potential Hazards inside Your Building

We have witnessed too many earthquakes in the past couple of years. The impact of several earthquakes has been devastating; it has destroyed numerous buildings and claimed thousands of lives. Hence, it is important to take adequate preventive measures against this natural hazard.

How to Ensure Maximum Safety

Hire a structural engineer and conduct a test to check whether your building is capable of withstanding an earthquake or not. If the test reveals that your building doesn’t hold the strength to withstand an earthquake, then you should go for seismic retrofitting measures and make the necessary changes.

Earthquake retrofitting can ensure the safety and increase the strength of your building, so that it can withstand the impact of any seismic activity. Furthermore, another significant thing to note while conducting the test is to look for the presence of any potential hazards.

Checking the Potential Hazards

We might not realize some of these potential factors and they may result in grave dangers in the events of an earthquake. During a seismic activity, the bulky materials hung on the ceiling can fall down and the chances for equipment failure are also higher. These hazards can put the lives of the residents under great danger and may even lead to serious injury or death.

There are chances for the breaking of fire sprinklers too during an earthquake. When this happens, you won’t be able to control fire and they might gradually expand to the whole building. Furthermore, your building will also be flooded due to the nasty water spray from the damaged sprinklers. Similarly, if your gas lines break during the earthquake, then the chances for gas fires are higher.

Why Hire an Expert

Even a smaller earthquake is capable of inducing a number of damages to your building. Issues such as fire damage, water damage and much more can happen if you don’t prevent the potential hazards.

As mentioned earlier, conducting a detailed inspection of your buildings by an experienced and qualified engineer is the best preventive measure you can adopt to stay safe. The test results will reveal whether structural repairs or seismic retrofitting is necessary or not.

Seismic retrofitting will take care of the non-structural issues, which requires professional attention. It also prevents the potential hazards and reduces the chances of building damage to minimum. Furthermore, secure ceiling panels, light fixtures, and fire sprinklers to prevent injuries and equipment damage can be well handled by an earthquake retrofitting expert.

Posted on Friday, January 26th, 2018.