Home Inspection in Oakland, CA

Census data puts Oakland's median build year around 1952, against roughly 1969 for Alameda County as a whole, with about 39 percent of units dating to 1939 or earlier and about three quarters predating 1980. Oakland roughly doubled in population between 1900 and 1910 as people displaced by the 1906 earthquake settled here, and a great deal of the stock dates from that period and the 1920s boom that followed.

This is not a figure of speech, it is in the zoning code. Oakland's Hillside Residential zones regulate building height by footprint slope in bands above 20, 40 and 60 percent, and on a steep downslope lot the garage sits at street level with the house stepping down below it. That geometry puts real structural load on posts, girders and their base connections in places that are awkward to reach and easy to skip.

The 1991 Tunnel Fire burned through Forest Park, Montclair, Upper Rockridge and Hiller Highlands, and those neighborhoods were rebuilt largely through the 1990s. One hills census tract shows nearly 58 percent of its housing built between 1990 and 1999 with a median year of 1994, inside a city whose overall median is 1952. We check the actual build era rather than assuming every Oakland house is a pre-war house.

The Hayward Fault extends along the eastern side of Oakland, and the USGS notes that Montclair Village straddles it, with slow surface creep visibly offsetting streets and sidewalks. The USGS puts the regional chance of a magnitude 6.7 or greater quake at about 72 percent over 30 years. We document what is visible at the structure and refer fault-specific and engineering questions out. Parcel-level zone answers come from the state EQ Zapp map, not from us.

Oakland's Safety Element states that landslide risk concentrates through the Oakland Hills and within two miles south of Highway 13, and that most hillside development predates modern grading requirements, so older hillside homes and subdivisions are the most susceptible. Down on the flats the story is different: artificial fill over estuarine mud along the bay margin is the very-high liquefaction unit, which is the ground the Cypress Structure stood on in 1989.

Oakland requires a private sewer lateral compliance certificate through the regional EBMUD program on sale, and a sidewalk compliance certificate before title transfer under the municipal code. What Oakland does not have, unlike Berkeley, is a general pre-sale building inspection requirement. Nobody is checking the condition of the house on the City's behalf before it changes hands.