Home Improvement Projects Done Without Permits Jeopardizes Home Sales and Contractor Reputations

In late July 2017, the Los Angeles County Superior Court finally dropped the gavel on Mohamed Hadid, sentencing the mega-mansion builder – and father of supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid – to three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and more than $3,000 in fines for unpermitted construction on a 30,000 square foot home perched over a Bel Air, Calif. hillside.

Dubbed by Curbed L.A. as the country’s “most illegal mansion,” the sprawling compound boasted pool decks, an IMAX theater, and an entire ground floor that city planners said were never approved. Between 2011 and 2015, ownership of the property changed hands five times even as Hadid stayed on as a developer, allegedly engaging in unpermitted grading and hiding illegal construction behind tarps and taped over doors and windows.
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Earthquake Checklist: How to Prepare Your Home

Whether you’re buying a new home or planning to stay in your current home for years to come, it’s important to make sure the building you live in is structurally sound. The following earthquake checklist will help you determine whether your house is properly connected and reinforced to withstand an earthquake.

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Creating Resilient Buildings and Communities

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about resilient buildings and resilient communities, including what it means to be resilient, why it’s important, whether it’s possible within budget constraints, and how it can be achieved. The 100 Resilient Cities Rockefeller Foundation initiativedefines “urban resilience” as “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems within a city to survive, adapt and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.”

The discussions have noted that communities are made up of several components — such as buildings, infrastructure, water, power and communication — that all need to be considered when developing a plan for resilience. Even though community resilience is multifaceted, the resiliency of buildings is a crucial component because research shows that Americans spend 90% of their day inside buildings.
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5 Tips for Homeowners Living in Earthquake Zones

You might not think you live in earthquake country, but at least 42 states are considered at moderate to very high risk earthquake zones. As you evaluate your home’s ability to withstand an earthquake and prepare for a seismic retrofit, knowing these simple steps will help ensure that your home is structurally sound and earthquake resistant.

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Should I Seismic Retrofit My Home?

Certain types of homes are more likely to need a seismic retrofit than others. If you answer yes to any of these questions, you should consider retrofitting your home.

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Keep Corrosion in Check

Just as knowing the load capacities of your metal hardware is crucial to safeguarding the structural integrity and longevity of your building project, so is understanding the metal’s susceptibility to corrosion. The likelihood of rust and rot increases when you are building outdoors in wet environments or other corrosive conditions. Having a solid awareness of the corrosive threatsposed by the environment and your building materials will help you to choose the fasteners, connectors and anchors that will best mitigate the risk of corrosion and keep your project structurally sound for the long haul.

Start by evaluating the exposure levels in your environment. Is it an interior dry- or exterior wet-service job, for example? Generally, outdoor environments are more corrosive of steel because of the greater moisture levels they present. Projects near the ocean or waterfront are at increased risk for corrosion due to airborne chlorides and salt splash prevalent in marine locales. Salt is also a danger if building materials will be exposed to de-icing salts.
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Prescriptions for a Perfect Pergola

Building a custom pergola, gazebo or patio cover is one of the best ways to enhance an outdoor living space. Beginning your project with a few simple construction tips in mind — and the right hardware on hand — can go a long way toward making your job easier, and toward creating a pergola that’s both structurally sound and stylish. Here are four tips on how to build your perfect pergola or other backyard structure.
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How to Build a DIY Garage Storage Wall System

Is your garage workshop starting to feel a little cluttered? Elisha Albretsen from Pneumatic Addict has teamed up with Simpson Strong-Tie to bring you an easy DIY garage storage wall system.

I love my garage. I love having a space where I can get creative and build things. Organizing said garage is a different matter. Until lately, I’ve had virtually no storage space for my tools. Everything was piled up in boxes or on the floor.

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DIY: How to Build a Workbench-Style Custom Desk

This post is part of an occasional series featuring guest bloggers. This post is by DIYer Jaime Costiglio. She’s a mom of three and describes herself as a DIY girl who works with wood, fabric and paint. She built a beautiful custom desk with our WBSK Workbench or Shelving Hardware Kit.

The workbench is perhaps my favorite place to spend time building different projects, so when it came time to build myself a new desk, I knew it had to have that workbench feel with desk-appropriate storage. Today, I’m sharing my industrial-style desk built using the Simpson Strong-Tie® DIY Workbench or Shelving Hardware Kit, plus additional fasteners.

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DIY: How to Build an H-Leg Table Bench

This past Thanksgiving, my wife Jamie and I built what we called an H-leg dining table because we needed a table that would seat 10 people. Since we knew we would want to use it outside when it warmed up, we built it out of cedar. However, we hadn’t got around to building the benches to go with it. Well, the time came where we really needed them, so we stopped procrastinating and got to work.

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