Most apartment owners in Los Angeles have received the City's retrofit compliance notice. Most have gotten at least one bid. And most have approved a scope of work that describes, in technical language, what is going to happen to their building.

What very few owners have ever seen is what that work actually looks like — inside the parking garage, behind the drywall, at the base of the columns that hold up everything above them. The engineering drawings show it in two dimensions. The bid describes it in line items. But the physical reality of a soft-story retrofit — what gets opened up, what gets installed, what the building looks like at each stage — remains opaque to most of the people paying for it.

That opacity creates anxiety. It creates disputes. It creates owners who don't know whether the work their contractor is performing matches the scope they approved. And it creates a market where contractors can cut corners in ways that aren't visible until a seismic event — at which point the consequences are irreversible.

This post walks through what a soft story retrofit actually looks like at each stage of construction, based on SKS's job site documentation from completed projects across Los Angeles. No stock images. No renderings. Real buildings, real conditions, real work.

What You're Looking At Before Work Begins: The Existing Soft Story

Before a single piece of steel is fabricated or a single anchor bolt is drilled, the existing condition of the soft story needs to be understood — not just from the engineering drawings, but from direct physical observation of the actual building.

The typical soft-story tuck-under building in Los Angeles presents a ground-floor parking bay that is structurally minimal by design. Slender wood columns, typically 4x4 or 4x6 posts on simple post bases, carry the floor system above. The columns are spaced to accommodate parking spaces — typically eight to ten feet on center — with no bracing between them in the direction of the parking bay opening. The perimeter of the building may have plywood shear walls, but the parking bay face is entirely open: the columns are the only vertical structural elements resisting lateral seismic loading in the most vulnerable direction.

When our engineers assess a building before retrofit, they are looking at several specific conditions that the retrofit design has to address. They are checking the existing post bases — whether the posts are bolted to the concrete slab or simply sitting on it, which is common in older construction and represents a critical connection deficiency. They are checking the beam-to-post connections above — whether there is positive connection hardware or whether the beam simply bears on the post top with no uplift resistance. They are checking the condition of the existing plywood shear walls in the parking perimeter — whether the nailing is adequate, whether the plywood has been compromised by moisture, whether the hold-down hardware at the base is present and functional.

What owners see in job site photos at this stage: the parking garage as it exists, with existing columns, beams, and any existing shear wall framing visible. In many buildings, this is the first time anyone has photographed the existing structural conditions — and the photos frequently reveal conditions that the engineering drawings didn't capture, including prior repairs, modifications, or deterioration that affects the retrofit approach.

Stage One: Demolition and Exposure

The first construction activity in a soft-story retrofit is demolition — not structural demolition, but selective removal of finish materials that conceal the existing framing and the locations where new structural elements will be installed.

In a typical tuck-under parking configuration, this means removing drywall or plaster from the walls at the perimeter of the parking bay, exposing the existing wood framing and any existing shear wall plywood. It means removing finish flooring or concrete topping slabs where new anchor bolt connections to the foundation are required. It means opening up the ceiling of the parking bay where new connections to the floor diaphragm above need to be made.

What owners see in job site photos at this stage: the parking garage with finish materials removed, existing framing members exposed, and the precise locations where new structural elements will be connected marked or identified. This stage frequently reveals conditions that were not visible in the pre-construction assessment — wood members that have deteriorated behind the drywall, existing connections that are more or less capable than assumed, prior structural modifications that were not documented in the building's original drawings.

For SKS projects, the open-framing stage is also when our in-house engineer conducts a physical verification of existing conditions against the retrofit design. If the field conditions differ from the engineering assumptions — which happens on a meaningful percentage of older buildings — the design is adjusted in real time, rather than proceeding with an installation that doesn't match the actual structural condition.

This is the stage where having in-house engineering matters most. A contractor without engineering capability who discovers a field condition that doesn't match the plans has to stop work, call an outside engineer, wait for a design response, and restart — adding days to weeks to the project timeline. SKS's engineer is on site. The response is immediate.

Stage Two: Foundation Anchor Bolt Installation

The connection between the new structural steel elements and the existing concrete foundation is one of the most critical — and most technically demanding — operations in a soft-story retrofit.

New steel moment frames and shear wall hold-downs must be anchored to the existing concrete slab or stem wall with epoxy-grouted anchor bolts. The anchor bolt installation requires drilling into existing concrete at precise locations and orientations, cleaning the drilled holes to the specification required for the epoxy adhesive to develop full bond strength, injecting epoxy adhesive, and setting the anchor bolts to the correct embedment depth and projection.

This operation sounds straightforward. In practice, it requires precision equipment, trained crews, and rigorous quality control — because the capacity of the anchor bolt connection depends entirely on the quality of the installation. An anchor bolt that was drilled at the wrong angle, set in an improperly cleaned hole, or installed with epoxy that was not applied correctly will not achieve its rated capacity. And unlike most structural deficiencies, an under-capacity anchor bolt installation is completely invisible after the grout has cured and the steel has been placed.

What owners see in job site photos at this stage: drilling rigs positioned at the column base locations, core drill bits pulling concrete dust, cleaned and blown-out holes with epoxy injection nozzles inserted, anchor bolts set to the correct projection, and fresh epoxy grout at the base of each bolt. The photos document the installation process at each anchor location — creating a visual record of work that will be permanently concealed when the retrofit is complete.

SKS documents anchor bolt installations with job site photography at each location as a standard practice — not because LADBS requires it, but because it is the only verification record that exists once the steel is placed and the concrete is grouted.

Stage Three: Steel Moment Frame Fabrication and Installation

The steel moment frame is the signature structural element of most soft-story retrofits — and the element that most visually transforms the parking garage from its pre-retrofit condition.

A moment frame consists of steel columns, steel beams, and rigid welded or bolted connections between them that allow the frame to resist lateral seismic forces through bending — through the flexural stiffness of the frame members and their connections — rather than through diagonal bracing or solid walls. In a tuck-under parking configuration, a moment frame is installed at the open face of the parking bay, replacing the lateral resistance that shear walls would have provided if the bay were not open.

The moment frame is custom fabricated — not off-the-shelf. Each frame is designed by the engineer of record for the specific column spacing, story height, and seismic demand of the individual building. The connection geometry, the member sizes, the weld details, and the base plate configuration are all specific to the design. A moment frame for a 1960s Koreatown apartment building with eight-foot column spacing and a nine-foot story height is not interchangeable with a frame for a 1975 Van Nuys building with ten-foot spacing and a ten-foot story height.

SKS fabricates moment frames through direct supply relationships with steel fabricators who have worked with our engineering team's standard details on hundreds of previous projects. The fabrication drawings come from our in-house engineer — not from an outside firm that has to coordinate with a separate fabricator. The result is tighter quality control, faster fabrication turnaround, and frames that arrive on site matching the design exactly.

What owners see in job site photos at this stage is the most dramatic visual transformation of the project: raw steel columns and beams, delivered to the job site, lifted into position by crew members and secured to the anchor bolts drilled in the previous stage. The before condition — wood columns with no lateral bracing — and the after condition — heavy steel moment frames with rigid connections — are visually striking even without engineering knowledge. The structural upgrade is visible and unmistakable.

The moment frame installation also includes welding of all field connections — the joints between the frame members that are made on site rather than in the fabrication shop. These welds are inspected by a special inspector, a licensed third-party inspector whose role is to verify weld quality against the approved welding procedure specification. Weld inspection records are documented and submitted to LADBS as part of the permit record.

Stage Four: Shear Wall Installation and Hold-Down Hardware

In addition to the moment frames at the open parking bay face, most soft-story retrofits include new or upgraded shear walls at the perimeter of the parking level — the walls that resist lateral seismic forces in the direction perpendicular to the parking bay.

New shear wall installation involves installing structural plywood panels — typically 15/32-inch or 19/32-inch structural sheathing — over the existing framing, with nailing at a specified pattern that the engineer has designed to achieve the required shear capacity. The nailing pattern is the critical quality control item in shear wall installation: a shear wall nailed at 6-inch spacing has significantly less capacity than one nailed at 4-inch or 3-inch spacing, and the difference is invisible once the wall is covered with drywall or stucco.

At the base of each shear wall, new hold-down hardware — typically proprietary anchor hardware from manufacturers like Simpson Strong-Tie — is installed to resist the overturning force that lateral seismic loading generates at the wall ends. The hold-down connects the wall framing to the foundation through the anchor bolts installed in the earlier stage, creating a continuous load path from the shear wall to the concrete.

What owners see in job site photos at this stage: structural plywood panels installed over framing at the perimeter walls, with nailing visible in the specified pattern, and hold-down hardware at the wall ends connecting to the anchor bolts below. The LADBS inspector verifies the nailing pattern and hold-down installation before the walls are covered — this is the rough framing inspection, the stage at which the structural work is exposed and verifiable.

Stage Five: Diaphragm Connections and Above-Grade Tie-Ins

The soft story retrofit is not complete when the ground-floor structural elements are installed. The new lateral system at the ground floor has to be connected to the floor diaphragm above — the structural plane of the second floor that collects seismic forces from the upper stories and delivers them to the new ground-floor lateral system.

Diaphragm connection work typically involves adding connection hardware between the top of the new moment frames and the existing floor framing above — through bolts, steel straps, or custom connection plates designed by the engineer. It may also involve adding blocking between existing floor joists at the frame locations, strengthening the diaphragm-to-perimeter-wall connections, or installing drag struts that distribute diaphragm forces more evenly to the new lateral elements below.

This work is performed from above — in the ground-floor units or common areas above the parking level — and requires coordination with tenants, temporary access to unit interiors, and careful restoration of finish surfaces after the structural work is complete.

What owners see in job site photos at this stage: connection hardware installed at the underside of the second floor structure, visible through temporary openings in the floor system, with new bolting and strapping tying the diaphragm to the new lateral elements below.

Stage Six: LADBS Inspection and Final Sign-Off

When all structural work is complete — moment frames installed and welded, shear walls nailed and hold-downs connected, diaphragm connections made and documented — the project is ready for the LADBS rough structural inspection.

The LADBS inspector verifies the installed work against the approved structural plans: frame dimensions, member sizes, connection hardware, nailing patterns, anchor bolt locations, and hold-down installations. Special inspection reports from the weld inspector are submitted. Any correction items are addressed. When the inspection is approved, the structural work is closed in — drywalled, plastered, and painted — and the project moves to final inspection.

The final inspection verifies the completed work: finishes restored, egress paths maintained, fire-rated assemblies maintained or upgraded where required, and all permit conditions satisfied. When the final inspection is approved and the permit is finaled, the project receives its city sign-off — the document that establishes the building's compliance with the soft-story retrofit ordinance and resets the compliance clock.

What owners receive at project completion: a finaled permit, a set of as-built structural drawings, the special inspection report for the weld work, and the city sign-off letter establishing retrofit compliance. This is the paper trail that protects the owner in every subsequent transaction, insurance review, and liability proceeding.

What the Building Looks Like After: The Invisible Upgrade

Here is the visual reality of a completed soft-story retrofit that most owners don't expect: from the outside, and from most interior vantage points, the building looks identical to its pre-retrofit condition.

The moment frames are behind drywall. The shear wall plywood is behind stucco. The anchor bolts are under the concrete topping slab. The diaphragm connections are above the ceiling. The entire structural upgrade — everything that has fundamentally changed the building's seismic performance — is invisible.

The parking garage, however, tells the story. The steel moment frame columns, exposed in the parking bay, are the one visible artifact of the retrofit — and they are unmistakably structural. They are the answer to the question every tenant and visitor to a retrofitted building eventually asks: what is that steel structure in the garage?

The answer is the difference between a building that performs and a building that collapses. It is not decorative. It is not cosmetic. It is the engineering intervention that changes the outcome of the next major earthquake for every person who lives above that garage.

SKS Has Completed Over 850 Soft-Story Retrofits Across Los Angeles

SKS Construction has been engineering and building soft-story retrofits since the Los Angeles ordinance was enacted in 2017 — and structural retrofits for decades before that. Every retrofit we complete is documented with job site photography at every construction stage, engineered by our in-house licensed structural engineer, inspected at all required stages, and closed with a finaled permit and city sign-off letter.

Fixed-price bids. No subject-to-change clauses. Direct owner access to Shahab and Sam Shaolian. 2026 deadlines active in Burbank, Torrance, Culver City, Pasadena, and Glendale. One firm that has been in the field long enough to have completed retrofits on buildings that were new when SKS was founded.

Get a FREE Soft-Story Retrofit Assessment — See What Your Building Actually Needs

SKS Construction offers FREE soft-story retrofit assessments for multifamily property owners across Los Angeles County and all 2026 deadline cities. Our in-house engineer will assess your building's existing soft-story configuration, identify the specific structural interventions required, and provide a fixed-price retrofit proposal — with full documentation of exactly what will be built and what it will cost.

No surprises. No subject-to-change clauses. No stock images of someone else's job site.

Call (818) 855-1181 or email info@sksconstruction.com to schedule your FREE retrofit assessment today.

You've seen the compliance notice. Now see what the work actually looks like — and what it takes to do it right.