Why shoring goes in first
Shoring is a supporting member that resists a compressive force imposed by a load, and that is the whole of it. It does not repair anything. What it does is hold a floor, a beam, a wall or a balcony still while the thing that will repair it is decided, drawn, permitted and built. Cal/OSHA's construction safety orders use exactly that definition in section 1504.
A balcony report can put it in the same week. Where an inspection finds an element that poses an immediate threat to the safety of the occupants, the report advises whether preventing occupant access or conducting emergency repairs, including shoring, are necessary, and Health and Safety Code 17973 treats that finding as an emergency condition. The notice chain runs on days, not discretion: a report recommending immediate repairs or shoring goes to the owner and the local enforcement agency within 15 days, emergency shoring is inspected by the inspector and reported to that agency, and an element closed to occupants counts as compliance until the repairs are made.
Before any demolition there is a survey, and the survey is what puts shoring where it is needed. Under Title 8 section 1734 a qualified person surveys the structure to determine the condition of the framing, floors and walls, and the possibility of an unplanned collapse; the survey is in writing and kept on site. Section 1735 then requires the deficiencies it records to be shored, braced or otherwise corrected as the survey recommends, and no work goes on over weakened floors or walls until they are.
Shoring is drawn before it is erected, and the drawing stays where the work is. Vertical shoring and falsework are put up to a signed layout under section 1717, and that layout is kept on the site at all times. The thresholds that decide how it is drawn are the height from the sills to the soffit, the horizontal span, and whether traffic passes underneath.
What structural shoring includes
The load path above the damaged element is worked out first: what sits on the floor, what the beam carries, which walls are bearing and which are not. On a balcony that means the ledger and the cantilever, because the loss of bearing is at the building line.
Where an inspection or the survey says so, occupant access is prevented before anything is erected, and it stays prevented until the repairs have been made and looked at.
A shoring layout is prepared and signed for the installation being built, showing the posts, the sills, the bracing and what each leg is carrying, and it stays on site.
Posts, beams and bracing go in from a bearing surface that can take them, plumbed and wedged tight. Above seven and a half feet at an open edge, fall protection goes on.
Inspections continue while the shoring stands, and nothing is worked over a floor or wall that is still weakened until it is corrected.
The shoring comes out once the permanent repair is in and signed off, and where the element was closed by an inspection, it reopens only after that approval.
Shoring is temporary and it is not a repair. It buys the time an evaluation, a drawing and a permit take, and it comes out when the permanent work is in, not when the building looks tidy again.
Where shoring is put in
Balconies and walkways
An element an inspection called an immediate threat, held while the repair is permitted, with access to it prevented for as long as it stands.
Fire-damaged structure
Charred framing and heat-affected beams held in place while the extent of the loss is established and the rebuild scope is drawn.
Vehicle impact
A column or a wall taken out in a parking structure, a loading dock or a storefront, where the floor above has lost a support point.
Before selective demolition
Where the written survey of framing, floors and walls turns up a deficiency, it is shored before the demolition that would otherwise expose it.
During a retrofit
While a wall line is opened for a new shear wall or frame, or while an anchorage run is cut into, the load above it is carried temporarily.
Long-term decay
Where a ledger, a post or a rim joist has lost bearing over years of wetting, the element is held while the rot is cut back and replaced.
Questions about structural shoring
Shoring is not an alternative to a repair; it is what holds the building while the repair is worked out. It goes in where an inspection has found an immediate threat, where a survey before demolition records a deficiency, and where damage has to be evaluated before anyone can say what the repair is.
It depends on what is shored and where. An element an inspection has closed stays closed to occupants until the repairs are made and approved. Elsewhere the shoring is usually in a plant room, a car park or above a ceiling, and the part of the building around it carries on.
A layout is prepared and signed for the installation and is kept on the site while the shoring stands. What decides how it is prepared is the height from the sills to the soffit, the horizontal span, and whether traffic passes through underneath.
A survey of the structure in writing, covering the condition of the framing, floors and walls and the possibility of an unplanned collapse. Whatever it records as deficient is shored, braced or corrected as the survey recommends before the demolition starts.
When the permanent repair is in and the inspector has signed it. Where an element was closed after an immediate-threat finding, it reopens only once the repairs have been inspected and approved.
Structural shoring by city
Shoring is requested through the structural repair page for your city, and an element that is unsafe right now goes to the emergency line.
Related structural repair services
