San Francisco’s concrete building program (Ordinance 70-25, San Francisco Existing Building Code Chapter 5G) requires owners of concrete and tilt-up buildings to file a screening form with DBI. The technical portion must be completed and signed by a licensed professional. We pull the permit history, confirm the structural system on site, complete and sign the form, and issue a written summary letter.
Written scope and fee within one business day.
Definitions below follow the ordinance’s own terms.
Typically tilt-up warehouse and retail: concrete or masonry walls with a wood or light steel roof diaphragm.
Any building where vertical concrete elements carry gravity load, form part of the lateral-force-resisting system, or both.
Your building is probably a single story, with concrete panel walls poured flat and tilted up, and a wood or steel roof deck spanning between them. If it was built before 1999 and covers more than 3,000 square feet, assume it is subject until a screening says otherwise.
The vulnerability is the connection between the heavy walls and the light roof. In past earthquakes, panels pulled away from roofs that were nailed rather than tied. Appendix A Chapter A2 retrofits add those ties and strengthen the roof diaphragm, usually without closing the building.
A previous Chapter A2 retrofit with a finaled permit takes the building out of the program, but only once DBI approves the screening form that documents it.
A concrete building is exempt from further requirements if any one of the following applies:
An exemption only takes effect when DBI approves a submitted screening form.
Owners who believe the building is exempt still file. The form is the vehicle for the exemption, and the technical basis must be signed by a licensed professional.
The technical portion may be completed and signed by a California-licensed architect, civil engineer, or structural engineer. Owners may answer the initial questions about ownership, address, and use.
The technical questions require a licensed professional. The hardest one is usually the earliest date the lateral-force-resisting system was first permitted, which drives both the RWFD cutoff and the age-compliance exemption. Answering it means reading the permit history, not guessing from the assessor’s year built.
Buildings without available drawings require field measurement of the structural system. That is reflected in the written scope before you engage.
Permit records reviewed to establish original construction and the first permit date for the lateral system.
Original and alteration drawings reviewed where available. Prior retrofits checked against the listed standards.
Structural system confirmed in the field: walls, columns, diaphragms, and podium or frame conditions.
Technical portion of the DBI online form completed, signed, and submitted with the owner.
Determination, basis, exemption claimed if any, and recommended next step, on letterhead.
Fixed fee, confirmed in writing before work begins. No hourly billing and no added charge for plan check responses.
Records requested and reviewed. Missing drawings flagged for field measurement.
Structural system confirmed on site by the signing engineer.
Technical portion drafted and reviewed with you before signature.
Signed form submitted to DBI. Summary letter delivered to the owner.
Buildings retrofitted to Appendix A6 (concrete) or Appendix A2 (RWFD) are exempt from any future local mandatory retrofit requirement for 20 years from the ordinance effective date. That is the decision an owner of a subject building faces: retrofit voluntarily now and lock in the exemption, or wait for a mandatory program on the City’s schedule and standard.
The next step we offer is a Voluntary Retrofit Feasibility Study: a site-verified review of the building against Appendix A6 or A2, identification of the likely deficiencies, a schematic retrofit concept, a construction cost range from a cost estimator or contractor, and an expected disruption to tenants. It is scoped in writing like every other engagement.
Screening and the study can be engaged together or separately.
Not included: DBI filing fees, material testing, retrofit design, and the Voluntary Retrofit Feasibility Study, which is scoped separately. After submission, DBI reviews the form. If DBI requests clarification, we answer it at no added charge.
Tell us what you know about the building. If you have the notice, the DBI reference number speeds the permit pull.
