Does Waukesha, WI need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Waukesha is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Waukesha ranks above 19% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 19th percentile.

How Waukesha compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.037g, short-period spectral response 0.077g, 1-second spectral response 0.049g. Among 157 Wisconsin cities in this dataset, Waukesha ranks 40 for seismic hazard, the 75th percentile within the state. About 71,461 people live in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Retrofit economics for Waukesha

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Wisconsin. 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 Waukesha address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Waukesha'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.