Taking the Bull by the Horns
By Kevin Foster
With climate change and fire seasons lasting nearly year round, residents all across the western states are adapting to protect their largest investment, their homes. Building codes are also adapting to the more common frequency of fires with new products that are being developed and becoming available to help homeowners adapt the exterior of their homes into being non-combustible; from landscaping to concrete parameters, fire resistant siding, eve and foundation ventilation systems that close off when encountering high temperatures, the building industry is evolving to the new “normal” fire danger conditions.
In the last four years as a contractor in a classified high fire danger area in the Santa Cruz mountains, I’ve been primarily helping homeowners “harden” their homes in case of another wild-land fire. I’d like to share with you some of the wonderful new products that have become available. We will start from the bottom up.
It goes without saying that any flammable or combustible material should not be around your house or up against it, including vegetation and starting with the foundation. Vulcan vents have developed a new product that is designed like a honeycomb behind the main screen that allows airflow to keep the foundation ventilated, but in the event of fire approaching your home, the honeycombs close and prevent fire from entering under your floor into your basement areas. They also make the same in gable vents for older cabins that only have cable, ventilation and soffit vents for ventilation. One of the most popular new products is James Hardie siding. It is a fiber cement board that will not burn and is designed with a nice wood grain pattern to it, so it looks like wood siding. James Hardie has also developed trim that comes in various sizes such as 1×4 1×6 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 for corner and window trims for different aesthetics for homes in the way homeowners prefer it to look (see photos). James Hardie products and Vulcan vent systems are your best bet besides stucco to harden the exterior walls.
Now we move onto roofs. A wonderful newly developed underlayment for composition and metal roofs is Polyglass Q by Mapei group. This is a new fire resistant underlayment material. (See photo) Of course, the best fire resistant roofing is a metal roof, but the majority of us have composition roofing so this underlayment is an added layer of fire resistance for your roof.
And last but not least, decks. Several new man-made decking products such as Trex Transcend, Fiberon and TimberTech, are fire rated. Some decking is not fire rated so be sure to check with your supplier on the different types that they supply and which ones are or aren’t rated. Know that when it comes to decks, the frame is almost always wood and it is difficult to protect the underside of decks from fire unless you have deep pockets and you can do metal framing for your sub structure. The best defensible way is to have absolutely nothing flammable around the perimeter of your deck. Some customers have wrapped the rim of their decks with a Hardie siding and used Hardie sheets and multiple rows of Vulcan soffit ventilation for any water to drain out, but this I don’t advise. The airflow under a deck is super important and trapping water is never a good idea.
So in combination with these wonderful new products to harden your house, along with changing the perimeter landscape around your house to rock stone or concrete and keeping any vegetation/fuel away from your house as much as possible, it will go a long way in securing your area. I know in the Santa Cruz mountains properties are not usually that large, so we all can do the best with what we have to insure fire safety.
I hope this helps you to make some decisions in the future if you’re concerned about forest fires. Here I’ve added some pictures of the products I have used with success.
And remember, if you can’t find a blessing, try to be one.