something, you might want to have an overflow. if you are comfortable having one without, then you would have that choice. >> i was particularly intrigued by this sink. i know the manufacturers were up this year. this is made out of some extremely heavy duty class. here is bob, who is the rep from oceana who manufactures this thing. this is not the type of sync that would set on top. it recesses. what is this made of? >> it is actually made of glass. it is a company in pittsburgh, and it is an extremely durable class. they actually do the globe in chicago for a recovery like standards. >> and outdoor material in chicago has to withstand the heat of chicago and the cold -- the heat of summer and cold >> of winter > exactly. this piece comes in about 12 different colors.

it has a backing to it, to. you cannot see through it, but it gets a lot of light back through it, so you could actually back like it if you want. >> we really like all these different styles. some of these that sit on top have advantages as well as disadvantages -- cleaning -- but they are stylish. but this has real advantage. when you lay it down, flesh, dram, and it has the faucet holes in here. it has the race area here so water will not run back off of it. >> let's go take a look at shower fittings and fixtures and the shower systems year. they are fascinating and very, very modern looking. all sorts of great stuff. do people like these in their homes? >> yes, i think this is a great example of how people do not want their parents shower anymore. this is the new generation of shower systems, and they have

and what occurred, -- accouterments. they just give a wide volume of water distribution. >> is that a problem with water flow? >> these technically meet those standards. the shower head distributes it, so it just kind of gives an appearance of more volume. these are body sprays that will take your body. this is a hand-held, and this is a good example where you could put a bar here. you could leave it in place as the traditional shower, or you could take it, and you could do it, and this is also great for cleaning and washing your dog and things like that. >> right, so you cannot get your hair wet while your taking a shower. i suppose this has the same kind of back float servants and -- backflow prevention built in. >> right, and it shows the

variety of finishes here. the chrome. this looks like brushed stainless steel. what you do not see is brass, and press has really become -- is in favor these days. kroll is probably the most popular. it is similar to in kitchen appliances, stainless steel. is good. it goes with all color schemes. >> there was a recent change to san francisco's codes that said you could not have more than one sitting turned on at any more than one time. so you cannot have multiple salaries and more for water savings. >> right. a lot of people like showers for two, and now, you are saying one valve for one shower. >> i think you could probably sit flow rates could be adjusted, and you could probably make it happen, but it is beginning to be very tightly regulated. tell us, when people come in to buy, what is it that they like?

what are they actually buying? >> a lot of it has to do with style. first is for the lab faucet's. you have the widespread, the two handles, hot and cold. very modern design. >> people like modern. >> people like modern, but we are in san francisco, so we get a wide range. then the one hand, very popular, ada-approved. saves water. very easy to use >> > one of the standards for commercial, not residential, is that you have to be able to operate equipment with a single operation without tight grasping or pinching. so this actually allows that to happen. you can operate without having to grab and pitch and twist something. this is very user-friendly. it is also reduced flow, and you

do not have to have two faucet's running. >> only have to cut one hole in your credit. . granite. this is really traditional, very popular fish. >> nice. and this is, -- chrome, and brushed nicke. >> as far south as there, and showers are popular right now. rain heads are popular, but you want something that is functional for what you use, so hand showers are great. >> is this one of the ones that has a sheet of water? >> it does. waterfalls of this type come down to a point when you turn them on. this particular one, because we have reworked the inside of it in a fairly complex plumbing system in there, it will actually come out as a sheet of

water like a true waterfall. >> but it still meets the flow requirements? >> it does. many of the process we are shipping today will be these standard at 1.5. >> i think 1.5 is the california appliance efficiency standard. >> that's right. that is what we are shipping out. >> terrific. what do you call this kind of head? >> there are just the regular overhead tight showerheads. they can be mounted, or they could come out at different lengths. >> so you could screw this on to enormous shower? >> as long as they can rotate. some of them are fixed flat. >> that is terrific. thank you for joining us today for "building san francisco" and

we hope to see you on the third wednesday of every month. sometimes we do leches with guests in our studio. please join us, and you can get more information that sfgov.org. it is a wonderful day, and i'm going to go get a burrito.

... >> i am the chief building inspector. we are here at the base of telegraph hill to talk about a subject of great interest for the people of san francisco which is rockslide, slope stability, which caused a dramatic front-page news. i am here with two knowledgeable and wonderful guests. i am here with a geotechnical engineer and a geologist. we are here to talk about rockslide, rockfalls, and related issues. what is the difference between a geologist and a geotechnical

engineer? >> and engineering geologist deals with identifying site characteristics, mapping, the ground's surface, collecting all of this data. the engineer can come up with medications and designs. >> the structural engineer might be working on a building if there is a building involved. what is your role? >> i am interested in the physical properties of the earth and how the earth will behave: subject to different load changes. when you are building a building, you are applying a load and you are wondering if the earth will be able to supply that load. we work closely together and we

come up with practical engineering solutions. >> this is when someone wants to build something. also, we have a rock piece of land. we have to have a resolution. >> in the u.s., about 2/3 of the population lives in areas that are prone to landslides. about $2 billion of damage occurs annually from landslides. unfortunately, 20-25 million people die as a result of landslides o. >> much of the coastline is either a bright red or a beige print th. >> here we are at the base of telegraph hill on lombard street.

this is owned by the city. behind you is a large piece of something exposed. you are looking at a large class that was xextricated in a quarry about hundred years ago. this is a secretive sandstones, shales, accumulated debris. essentially it ended up piled up here. the quarry activity was so intense and they used some much at dynamite that the kind of over blasted. 10 feet of the face was left shattered. you can see the fresh colors and a pile of debris which is precariously perched on the edge of a cliff up there. it is more fresh and more recent than the rest. it stands out because there's no

vegetation. there is no weathering of material. those are the kinds of things you look for. >> there are many types of slides. there is the bedrock slides which we are looking at in is a combination of a block slide and where the material is just out of balance and is falling off. rainfall pushes from the ground water and out of the cliff. as you can see, the slides artistic one of many types of landslides or slope failures. >> do we have all of these kind of failures in san francisco? >> unfortunately, we have them all. the rock from here is used from the sea wall. it came from this hill. it was a itgnoll that was

present. because of this blasting that occurred, the rock is weak. while most of the time, there are times of heavy rain. sometimes, this has nothing to do with the rainfall. iraq is 50 to an old and then it just falls. in this particular area where we're standing, we have seen the wall at the base. >> the big steel beams with the fence. this is an effective way of preventing the rock that does fall from causing damage. that might protect the bottom of the hill but it doesn't do anything over the hill. >> it has long been my

understanding that the city of san francisco says and the building department takes this position that there is no one buildable lot -- unbuildable lot. i wonder if this is realistic. >> if money is an issue, we can develop solutions that will mitigate the impact. that a solution can be eliminating the hill, that can eliminate the problem. or build a structure right into the hill so there is no longer an exposed face or bold enough of iraq together so that it acts as a big buttress to prevent further movement. -- or hold enough of the rock together so that it acts as a big buttress. we are allowing the wall of the

building to act as a retaining structure. there was a time when we did not get any. there was an epic one before in 1982. we brought with us and rainfall charge. >> you were saying that this is somehow correlated to rainfall. this goes from 1914 until 2006. it is the red line in the backgrounds which are the annual rainfall from each year is plotted on here. you can see it varies all over the place. if you take an average, the average is a thin gray line. that does not give you a feel for what the rainfall really is. that is an average over four years. you can see that these build up until we had the big events

before. >> you expect to see them during the apocrine fall. in fact, they might occur at that time but they may occur the year after and two years after because it has taken awhile for it to accumulate. this triggered some major landslides that we saw. these are portions of the cliff rotates out to sea. >> when we look at this cliff, can you tell us what of the features that we can see? >> we are lucky to have a very fresh exposure. there is a large overhanging block. at the very edge, you can see the roots coming out. they are part of the problem.

in addition, these are sandstone and shale. they have been uplifted and faulted and put into the position they are in today. on the cliff face, you can see the bedding of the shale. there are vertical cracks that filled the water and plans is growing. -- and plants are growing. the cumulative effect of the fresh cut with the debris sitting on the ledge, luckily we have a chance there to protect us from rocks going on the street. >> this is one type of rock salt and we will look at a few others. what will we see? >> i think it would be appropriate. we have been talking about rock salt.

there is instability that occurs at telegraph hill. this was more in the earth flow and debris flow kind of movement. this moves downhill as a result of the rations from the earthquake. that is where we are headed next. >> here we are on the next stop of our landslide for parent though this is the lagoon ouna a area. this is different from where we all were just add on telegraph hill. this is a whole different concept. tell us what we have to. we have the big hill behind us,

what kind of formations do we have? >> this part of san francisco, we are out in the dune sands which makes up the hill to my right. a crusty old drainage that we are standing is bedrock, 160 million year-old sandstone. the project right in the hillside over there and then farther down along the path that goes to the reservoir. >> there are rock slides, there is unconsolidated material. we have an earth float type slide and a debris flows which are common on the these hillsides where you start to see the evidence of creaks when the trees start to lean over.

>> this is a slow movement of the slope. >> yes. you can start to get moving. that will push the trees over a little bit. this had a special history. we had a lot of damage here. i guess the water from leaking laguna runs underground out to golden gate park. it covers about two or three blocks along side to seventh avenue. there was a lot of water damage we might have even had some liquefaction soil failure. we had a major failure. >> that's right. this tribute goes all the way to golden gate. this is in a mountain lake and beyond ththat, it was a

surface flow. this is a reservoir. on my right is this defensive the positive dune sand. the wind blows, it comes from the ocean beach. because the sand is moving, you can see evidence along this side of the hill in 1989. the vibrations in accelerated. you have a significant amount of movement to the point that the homes that uc had very severe damage for two blocks. we recognized what the problem was at the time, it was a matter of loose sand on a very steep slope. thank you for the effort. we were able to get federal funding and design which you see in the upper walls. the lower walls was actually

billed as part of the wpa. the upper wall was built in 1991-'92. this is a concrete wall and it has rocked going through the wall that extends the distance of 80 feet beyond the wall. the next earthquake occurs, the wall is designed to resist and the movement of the sand and allowed it to move down hill. this is a classic example of the creek and degree flow and exists all the way the area. we might see the other evidence. we have done nothing to improve the quality and the strength of the dam. >> one of the things that has come up in the policy issue over and over is that people are concerned that construction of a new building or the upper story might exacerbate these kinds of

soil problems. we have extra review where we might have extra problems. it does that construction have an impact? it is a good idea to come to a peer review or a geotechnical review process as part of determining. >> in january of this year, the california building code requires almost all of san francisco that we get geologist and a geotechnical engineer. it was a state building code rather than just the local requirements. >> as you recall, this was called the edge hill ordinance.

>> is this the same kind of condition? >> this is more of the rock, all on one side and on the other side -- >> this is a combination. >> a lot of sand hills were scrapes down and deposited to other places without being engineered or consolidated and people build on top of that. we have a whole change as the city surfaced. what is the deal with sand, is this a good place to build on? >> if you want to understand the

properties and if you designed to mitigate any adverse effects of the settlement, this is the strongest. i live in the sunset, i have been doing this right on the other side of this hill. i see the same conditions exist here where we have the earthquakes and the sand shakes and it gets more dense. we see differential settlement of are on. >> they might have filled in a low land or a wet land and build on top of it. this is a fully grated sand. seeing difficult to distinguish what was natural. you could be growing like we do and as difficult to distinguish the context between this and the natural sand. we have to go by its

consistency. >> in san francisco, we have a tremendous resource. we have a collection of soyoil supported that goes back many decades and they cover the whole realm of the city. we have them at the apartment building inspections. someone understands what they are. you can look at them and read them and find one in your neighborhood. is that right? >> that is true. many geologists have spent many years mapping the geologic conditions. there are excellent maps of the city. in fact, there are a hazard maps. in 1974, there was a landslide map. >> that's right. that is available at that

apartment building inspection. these are excellent maps. >> there is a real legacy of geologists working and now cannot always published. san francisco has a great repository of some of these archives. there is a child just -- a geologist to publish letters that is a great source of information. we are on the coast, they have the definitive work for all of the [inaudible] >> and did they pick up the old [inaudible] and wetlands? >> there was a map of those that weren' off the field.

you can see where these are with respect to those that have been filled in with a debris from the 06 earthquake. >> that is one of the things i've learned, the very local zones, exactly where you are building at. side-by-side, san francisco is so varied in its tomography and geology, you cannot tell by looking at the site specifically. >> this will be at the end of the drive. you can show which time we will be looking at out there.

>> these are called rotational. >> there can be a lot of movement all at once. they can slowly creep for long amounts of time. >> here we are at the top of an escarpment that pretty much the end of the world. it is windy and cold. just south of here is some also rock where the san andreas fault goes into the pacific ocean. this is closest to the san andreas fault. many people believe that the closer you are to default, the te