TV mounting and furniture assembly in Oakland

Earthquake-minded mounting and assembly in Oakland

Oakland's Safety Element places the city between the active Hayward and San Andreas fault zones and says most of it is at risk of violent shaking. USGS gives the Hayward or Rodgers Creek faults a 33 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 or larger quake between 2014 and 2043. A heavy TV on a weak anchor or an unstrapped bookcase is a real hazard here.

Heavy mounts go into framing and tall furniture gets anti-tip anchors. Oakland has plenty of prewar houses, where walls are usually plaster over lath and need plaster-rated anchors and careful drilling to avoid cracks. Tell us how big the TV is and snap the wall where it will hang. A new outlet at TV height is electrical work, priced through our licensed partner Bay Builder Inc.

Worth knowing about Oakland

• In the hills that burned in 1991, many homes were built on platforms over canyon walls or in levels stepping down the slope, often with the garage at street level.
• About 76.7% of Oakland's 191,713 housing units were built before 1980, and 37.2% in 1939 or earlier, more than in any later decade.
• West Oakland holds the city's oldest neighborhoods; Oakland Point, today's Prescott, was built up by the end of the 1870s with Italianate, Stick and Queen Anne houses.