Frederick's Seismic Design Category, explained

Frederick carries Seismic Design Category B under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Frederick ranks above 56% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 56th percentile.

Frederick by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.1g, short-period spectral response 0.188g, 1-second spectral response 0.055g. Among 79 Colorado cities in this dataset, Frederick ranks 54 for seismic hazard, the 32th percentile within the state. About 17,937 people live in Frederick, Colorado.

Retrofit economics for Frederick

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Colorado. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

Outside California, earthquake coverage is typically sold as an endorsement added to a standard homeowners policy, not a separate product - worth asking about directly when getting a home-insurance quote for a Frederick address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Frederick's numbers. The guide to what a Seismic Design Category actually means covers why a category is never a substitute for an engineer's assessment of one specific house.