A high rise tends to be a safe place during an earthquake due to the amount of engineering and modeling for earthquakes done.

But, it isn’t the safest place. Open areas free of obstacles tend to be the safest places.

Cement block is the most expensive, takes up more room but is far more durable. It is limited in how “nice” it looks from the outside. No insect issues (unless you put a wood roof on it) and very few water issues. Also, it is the most repairable should you run into it.

Wood framing is the least expensive and easiest to build. In wet or moist environments you are most likely to have insect or mold issues. This tends to be the most popular choice as it is the least expensive. They can look like anything and can match anything.

Metal framing. they are two types of metal framing: light gauge similar to wood framing but metal studs, and heavy gauge/ industrial. Light gauge metal is a bit more expensive than wood but you’ll probably need a commercial contractor to put it together as a lot of residential framers just aren’t familiar with the methods. Heavy gauge will likely be a prefab kit with several heavy members making the structural frame and metal panels infilling or skinning the structure. Light gauge metal looks like whatever you frame to look like (just like wood), but no insect and fewer water issues. Heavy gauge is a prefab tin can and looks like it. The manufacturer will likely put it together for you. Again, no insects and fewer water issues.

Typically, you want a bottom to your sump. Otherwise, you have dirt/mud containing your sump. This can lead to the sump sinking, dirt and rocks trying to go through your sump, or leaking around the sump which you probably didn’t intend as you would have provided leach lines instead of the sump.

So, yes. You want something like a concrete bottom to your sump.

If steel manufacturing isn’t local the cost goes up due to transportation costs.

In order to get most of the corrosion resistance from GGBS the ratio reduces the 28 day and ultimate strength of the concrete. But this almost always is quite a bit higher than similar concrete without GGBS.

GGBS can produce a finer surface texture compared to typical concrete. This can affect coatings requiring a mechanical bond rather than a chemical one.

Lastly, if you are worried about specific chemical (corrosion) interactions where your concrete is being placed, the plant was not able to give us a specific makeup of the GGBS additive. They simply stated that the material was within tolerance of GGBS additives. This won’t be an issue for most users, but it was a problem with concrete directly exposed to industrial materials.

Most of the time apartments are minimized versions of houses. If it isn’t necessary it isn’t part of the apartment.

All apartments are house replacements.

Once you get out of the minimized area of apartments they start taking on all the aspects of high-end homes in areas that normally wouldn’t be able to support them anymore. Such as downtown or other highly urbanized areas.

Underground tanks up to 50,000 gallons – PE, Fiberglass, steel, or concrete

Underground tanks more than 50,000 gallons – concrete with liners

Pillow tanks up to 40,000 gallons – PE, Fiberglass, steel or concrete

Above ground tanks more than 40,000 gallons – steel or concrete

Firstly, remember that in your scenario the weight is still applied over the existing base. As buildings are designed to be stable objects this will only result in your tilt if the soil below is undermined during the process or you have a partial collapse of the structure pushing enough of the weight beyond the base perimeter but still above the base.

A better example would be to construct a heavy-duty cantilever on the side you wish to tilt. You need to start loading that. Now remember that the foundation alone in the building is about as heavy as the portion of the building above ground (hence why they are so stable), so you are going to need close to a 100 tons even for a small building.

And let’s not forget that it needs to be a steel or concrete building constructed of moment frames (like a tall office building or apartment tower) otherwise you’re just pulling the wall off the side of the building.

The real problem with this is that buildings are actively designed to resist exactly this kind of scenario. In fact, any building that was placed in a scenario that suspected that issue would be designed so that half the weight of the building could be hung on one side without issue of tilting just as standard practice.

Okay. This is the map structural engineers use to determine earthquake forces.

First. There is no place on earth earthquake cannot occur. That being said, there are roughly two areas of California that experience the least, or at least, the mildest earthquakes.

The northern central valley extending up to around Eureka. The second is around the California Arizona border area.

There you go.

Depends on a few things.

Normally this would be an F=ma problem, but we don’t know enough about the starting conditions.

Scenario 1. The mass was at rest or was at a constant velocity with no acceleration, but loses mass without additional force. The mass stays at rest, or no acceleration.

Scenario 2. The mass was accelerating, but loses mass without additional force. The mass increases its acceleration.

Now if the change in mass results in a force things get more difficult, but I think we covered what you were really asking already.

It is highly dependant on the magnitude, and your distance from the quake origin (surface and depth of the quake).

A shallow 3.0 can significantly damage a building located at the epicenter.