Home Inspection in Richmond, CA

Census ACS figures put 17.6 percent of Richmond housing units at 1940 to 1949, a larger share than any other decade, with 28.5 percent built before 1950 and 43.6 percent before 1960. That is a measurable fingerprint of the war years, and it is unusual among California cities, where the 1950s and later normally dominate. It means a Richmond buyer is more likely than a buyer almost anywhere else in the state to be looking at a house built in wartime conditions, on a wartime schedule.

Richmond's four Kaiser shipyards produced 747 ships, more than any other shipyard complex in the country, and the city grew from under 24,000 people in 1940 to roughly 100,000 by 1943. More than 21,000 public housing units went up by 1943, housing more than 60 percent of the population, and much of it was explicitly temporary. Atchison Village is the exception that survived: built in 1941 under the Lanham Act, 450 units across 162 buildings, deliberately permanent construction on garden city principles, sold to its residents in 1957 and still a housing cooperative, listed on the National Register in 2003 at the national level of significance. Nystrom Village is a second surviving 102-unit project. Harbor Gate was cleared for industrial redevelopment in 1955.

Richmond's own General Plan Safety Element states that the Hayward Fault "runs through Richmond following the west ridge of Wildcat Canyon, running west through Parchester Village and into San Pablo Bay." The California Geological Survey's Seismic Hazard Zone Report 134, official as of February 2024, includes the fault in an Alquist-Priolo zone and designates about 22 square miles in the Contra Costa portion for liquefaction, with roughly 4.9 square miles of artificial fill over San Francisco Bay mud along the bay front all inside the zone. Documented historical liquefaction here is specific: lateral spread, settlement and sand boils at the Point Richmond Ferry Terminal in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and settlement near the mouth of Garrity Creek in 1906, both in fill over bay mud.

The CGS report designates about 9 square miles for earthquake-induced landslide, including the hills around Point Richmond and Point San Pablo. The City's Safety Element separately names three areas with major recent landslide activity, the El Sobrante Valley ridges, the Point Richmond area along the San Pablo and Potrero Hill range, and the El Cerrito Hills. On the flat side, the Safety Element notes that sand layers between clay layers on the Bay Plain build artesian pressure that can break through during excavation, and that those layers may be liquefaction-prone. Most Richmond development sits on that plain, where deeper soft alluvium and bay mud raise the ground shaking risk.

Under municipal code chapter 12.17, established in 2006, a Certificate of Lateral Compliance is required whenever a property is sold or title transfers, and it takes a camera inspection by a state-licensed plumber. The certificate is good until a later inspection or 15 years, whichever comes first, and compliance is required within 60 days after close of escrow with a signed addendum assigning responsibility. The complication is that three agencies serve Richmond: the City's own Municipal Sewer District in the central and southern areas, West County Wastewater District across much of the northern half, and Stege Sanitary District in the Richmond Annex. Which rules apply depends on the parcel, not on the city name on the envelope.

Standard Oil built its refinery here starting in 1901, and the Chevron Richmond Refinery today is the third-largest in California at 245,271 barrels per day per the California Energy Commission, the largest in the Bay Area. Santa Fe established its western terminus at Point Richmond in 1899 and moved its shops here in 1901, and the city-owned Port of Richmond handles more than 19 million short tons a year. Practically, this means two things for a buyer. Bay Area air district rules require real-time fenceline monitoring at refineries, with data published publicly. And the county Community Warning System, 43 sirens tested at 11:00 AM the first Wednesday of each month, uses a shelter-in-place protocol that calls for shutting doors and windows and turning off vents, air conditioners and fans. Whether a home's HVAC can actually be shut down quickly is a reasonable thing to know here.