Long-distance moving from places like Florida, where things like earthquakes are rare, to more earthquake-prone areas such as California can be very stressful in itself. But what about the strain that comes after you move to sunny California. A common stressor while adjusting to a new home can be home security, but earthquakes can bring a whole new form of problem. Most people who had never had to deal with tremors in their lives before moving to places where they can commonly experience something called earthquake anxiety. Knowing that you are ready for such an event can help you deal with those uncomfortable feelings. To help with this, we’ve compiled a list of tips that are sure to help make your home earthquake-ready.
Tip 1: Secure (big) Furniture to the Wall
If you are moving long-distance from Florida to California, you have an excellent opportunity to do things right from the start. Relocating furniture long-distance yourself is a challenging process, and that’s where logistics services and moving companies can step in to help you reach California with ease. But when it arrives, nobody wants all that work to be wasted by an earthquake. During an earthquake, keeping balance can be hard to do even for us, but if it is a stronger one, this task will be impossible for your furniture. Now, if you were to try and secure every single piece of furniture in your new home, it would just be a waste of time, energy, and money. A small ottoman or a coffee table tipping over would be the least of your problems during an earthquake. To prepare your home for an earthquake, consider the height-to-width ratio of your furniture and its proximity to walls.
If a piece of furniture such as a cabinet or cupboard is much taller than it is wide, the likelihood of it tipping over and falling on someone is much more significant. That is the reason why you should keep furniture like that as close to the wall as possible to give it some extra balance support. You should also restrict the movement of the cabinet so that it’s easier to predict in which direction it would fall (if it was just sitting in the middle of the room, it could also fall backward). If your goal is to make your home earthquake-ready as much as possible, the smartest thing to do is to secure these things to the wall (this can be as easy as bolting them to the wall).
Tip 2: Secure Your Shelves
During an earthquake, any falling object can cause potential harm. This means that anything breakable has no place on an open shelf, and the things that are on the shelves should have some sort of prevention from falling. The best prevention that can be installed quickly and for small amounts of money is ledge barriers. With them, you can prevent things like books, which generally tend to slide rather than fly off of the shelves from falling. If you have any memorabilia, such as framed photos or souvenirs from travels, that you want to display, make sure you place them on the lower shelves.
Tip 3: Install Latches on Cabinet Doors
Besides ledge barriers on shelves, one of the easiest home projects for preparing your home for an earthquake is installing latches on cabinet doors. Although you should do this for all of them, the most important ones are the cabinets hanging at a height above your head (for example, the ones most people have in their kitchens). When making your home earthquake-ready, all the steps that need to be taken can turn out pretty costly (especially when hiring professional help). That is why any way you can save money counts. We advise you to utilize the resources you can find on the internet and do all of these simpler projects yourself so that more considerable investments in prepping your home for an earthquake don’t represent as much of a problem.
Tip 4: Install Safety Film on the Glass in the House
Installing a safety film is a job for a handyman (or handywoman), so if you don’t consider yourself to be one, we advise asking for help with this.
Generally, glass is a massive problem during an earthquake. Since it is easily breakable and very sharp when it breaks, it can cause more than one problem when flying around during an earthquake. Luckily, a safety film can help tremendously. Make sure to add it to the windows, glass doors, glass cabinet doors, and, if possible, mirrors.
A glass safety film is a see-through film that creates an effect similar to a car windshield after being put on glass. This means that when the glass breaks, it will remain stuck in place and only look cracked.
Tip 5: Avoid Hanging Things From the Wall or Ceiling
When it comes to the tips for making your home earthquake-ready, it does not get more straightforward than this one. Anything that is left hanging is most likely going to fall during an earthquake. So if you want pictures, mirrors, clocks, or anything else on your walls, ensure that it is adequately bolted and secured to the wall. The same goes for ceilings. If your choice of lighting involves a hanging chandelier, try to get it as firmly secured to the foundation of your ceiling as you can.
Tip 6: To Make Your Home Earthquake-Ready, Make Your Walls Earthquake-Ready
The most useful and costly thing you can do to make your home earthquake-ready is reinforcing and securing your walls. The focus for this should be:
- the cripple wall (the area between your floor and the foundation),
- chimneys or general masonry,
- concrete walls.
That requires a lot of money, so if you haven’t decided on a home you’re moving to yet, experts from 247logisticservices.com say that a wise choice would be to look into one that already has these installments.
Tip 7: Fit Gas Appliances with a Breakaway Valve
It is wise to turn off any appliance, whether electric or gas, during an earthquake. The easiest way to do it quickly is to fit all gas appliances with a breakaway valve.
To Conclude:
That was our list of the seven most important tips to make your home earthquake-ready. While this might seem like a lot of work, we need to realize that when moving to earthquake-prone areas, making your home earthquake-ready becomes part of the routine of proper home maintenance. Earthquake anxiety is serious and being informed, ready, and having the necessary harm prevention is the best way to battle it properly. Meta: Read about the 7 ways to make your home earthquake-ready. It will make your home safer if you live in an earthquake-prone area and give you peace of mind.
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