How to Safeguard Your House from Wildfires | Ask This Old House

Ask This Old House host Kevin O’Connor learns about ways to make a home more resistant against wildfires.
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Shopping List:
Class A Roof Shingles
Non-combustible siding
Rock mulch
Steps:
1. In general, houses that are destroyed by wildfires catch on fire because embers reach combustible materials that are too close to the house. Once the combustible materials ignite, they can catch the rest of the house on fire. To prevent the house from catching on fire, it’s important to keep combustible materials as far away from the house as possible.
2. One way to do that is by building a house with noncombustible materials. On the roof, use shingles that have been given a Class A rating, meaning they can withstand fire for 2 hours or more before burning through to the sheathing. For siding, consider using brick, stucco, block, or fiber cement board.
3. It’s also important to keep the house and surrounding area clear of combustibles. Remove leaves from gutters, keep debris off the roof, and keep your surrounding properly clear from combustible materials that could easily spread to the house.
4. The also applies to landscaping. Do not plant anything 0-5’ from the house. Instead, consider laying a bed of crushed stone or rock mulch.
5. If you want to plant anything 5-30’ from the house, keep them lower to the ground and spread apart in a way that the fire can’t jump from plant to plant.
6. Beyond 30’, consider keeping tall trees trimmed so that it’s harder for them to catch fire as well.
Resources:
Kevin learned that choosing and maintaining a house with non-combustible building materials can help prevent the embers of a wildfire from burning a house down.
The fiber cement boards that Kevin saw are Hardieplank Lap Siding in Pearl Gray, which is manufactured by JamesHardie (www.jameshardie.com/). The roof shingles with a Class A rating can be found at home centers. Rock mulch can be found at home centers and nurseries.
Expert assistance with this segment was provided by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (disastersafety.org/).
About Ask This Old House TV:
Homeowners have a virtual truckload of questions for us on smaller projects, and we're ready to answer. Ask This Old House solves the steady stream of home improvement problems faced by our viewers-and we make house calls! Ask This Old House features some familiar faces from This Old House, including Kevin O'Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook.
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How to Safeguard Your House from Wildfires | Ask This Old House
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[@agroves72]

Thanks for covering this important topic. As a survivor of a major California wildfire, I have two important things to add. First, a major vulnerability of most homes are vents. Embers get pulled into the attic or crawlspace by pressure differentials and burn the house from the inside out. This is a relatively cheap fix, but it's really important. Second, in terms of the 5' perimeter around the house, wooden fences should be replaced with non-combustible material. Many houses have been lost because flame followed the wooden fence to the house, and from there into the eaves.

[@donsmith9081]

I’m getting ready to put a pre-fab house that comes with a ridge vent in my backyard in CA and am looking for non combustible materials and info. What is the cheap fix you mentioned in your post? Thanks, Don

[@juliof970]

He has a "Class A" beard.

[@dcbqb19]

Never thought I'd see a former teammate at Eastern Tech on TOH! Small world!

[@zorro70066]

You didn't mention attic vents, one of the most common fire spread method of wildfires.

[@kurtisnimmert7555]

This is a super important topic especially this time of year. I personally use the 2/50/100 nothing flammable within 5 feet no trees within 50 feet and thinned out forest and no underbrush within 100 feet as we live in a pretty heat forested area

[@NFLYoungBoy223]

Kurtis Nimmert my house is sitting on a multi million dollar plot of land with oil

[@paulmaxwell8851]

Basic fire-smarting a home is important, but please don't lose sight of the fact that between 90% and 100% of home ignitions are caused by wind-driven firebrands ('embers'). NOT direct flame impingement. NOT radiant heat from the almost mythical 'wall of fire'. These can travel up to four miles ahead of a fire front. If they can find their way into your attic or under a deck they will destroy your home. It is very important that basic fire-smarting measures be taken first. Then go over your home with a fine-toothed comb and look for areas where firebrands might enter the building. A buttoned-up home is surprisingly resistant to wildfire.

[@scotttovey]

Great content, thanks.

[@johnroberts9560]

Hello TOH, thanks for uploading this important video about wildfires & how too keep your house safe ! 👍😊🔥🔨🔩🔧

[@garybensel6680]

Steel roofs and sidings would protect many buildings from outside fires

[@douglasmccarty1196]

I gon't worry about this stuff, i live on a boat surrounded by water

[@Rays_Bad_Decisions]

The supports and insulation also need to be non combustible. Steel transfers heat fast it just does not catch fire

[@mikem3789]

Good source of information, 👌

[@Arteolike]

Lol: At 0:05 the little license plate names read from bottom to top: Tommy, Richard, Kevin, Playboy...

[@hubbardhamlin2]

ALP'ie, great observation for non-important information.

[@Arteolike]

Philip Sterk Great response to my non-important comment about the non-important observation. Yet, you were still inclined to reply.

[@mountainbikerdave]

build your house out of concrete or steel. problem solved. I have no clue why a whole town can get burned down and they just put wood houses right back up. like god damn!!! LEARN!!!!!

[@tonytony6912]

I've thought the same.

[@bmxadict1816]

First love toh Edit) thanks for the highlight

[@huma1188]

Most "wildfires" in California were caused by PG&E but still get called wildfires.

[@BlogWorldExpo34t3]

We will build a wall around the company then. Issue fixed.

[@JB-mh6xz]

Yup and CalPUC won't do anything about it cause they are shareholders.

[@ColinPittendrigh]

If you build with metal studs and beams, cement board siding and sheetrock inside the plywood sub-sheathing is the only thing flammable left. Are there non-flammable alternatives to plywood and OSB?

[@paulmaxwell8851]

As long as there is no combustible material outside the home your choice of sheathing doesn't matter. It takes a tremendous amount of sustained heat to ignite the sheathing under a non-combustible roof or wall. No woodsheds, no wood decks, no fencing connected to the home. These are common-sense things.

[@nodoxplz]

TOH! You should partner up with William Osman to keep him (and michael) from burning down his house again (it was actually the California fires)

[@mwngw]

Is there any such product as a temporary, "whole house" flame-resistant cover....like some sort of welding-cover blanket??

[@paulmaxwell8851]

Yes, retardant foams like Novacool. You spray down the entire house. Later, you just rinse it off with a garden hose.

[@paulmaxwell8851]

Yes, in a sense. Foams and gels such as Phos-Chek and Thermo-Gel. You spray it over the entire home. The gels are especially effective, and can last for days.

[@adamguymon7096]

I thought that you were going to tell us about a fire suppression system where if an amber landed on your home it could detect something like that and water of a sort of foam could be sprayed over the surface of the roof, siding etc of the home to put out the amber's until the fire department could get to the home I thought that you were going to tell us about some special clear coat protective items you could spray or brush on the surfaces of your home as an additional protection that will not burn?

[@tentons123]

Hooooom

[@rrps6546]

Step 1: don’t live in California

[@user-vk4kp6iu4o]

👍🥰

[@BrandonRa]

Just build a moat around your house

[@hubbardhamlin2]

but the flying embers?

[@scallywag1716]

@@hubbardhamlin2 Waterfall moat!

[@calenshackleford4676]

Nice beard

[@bobdickweed]

Dont build your house out of wood .... Easy

[@otiscampbell2194]

Dont build next to trees.flooding.dont build by rivers and lakes. Simple common sense.dont like traffic or train noise da dont build near freeways or train yracks,da

[@ryanmiller4791]

OTIS CAMPBELL dont live next to trees? Might as well not live in any decent home then

[@topsecretbear9918]

Maybe they should just put up a "fire free zone" sign & ban those awful assault lighters.

[@unguidedone]

ok this video is misleading thankfully i have training in this problem modern homes 1945+ are built for speed / lowest cost and mostly wood frame. building code standards are in place so they can be designed to not be destroyed under overpressure conditions from a nuclear blast up until a point of failure (levittown) go here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions goto summary of effects it has a chart for psi / kPa on buildings (5+ psi) force = area x pressure x Cd - long story short it would be destroyed but those are the building standards / wood frame buildings dont do so well in the real world when exposed to fires even a roof rated to be exposed to fire. If you live in areas that have conditions from nature that can destroy houses - earthquakes / hurricanes / tsunami / fires / tornado / nuclear you need to design / build the appropriate structure for where you live to counter the forces of nature in your area. earthquakes - monolithic domes / geomesh adobe (no heavy roofs) / rammed eath (no heavy roof) hurricanes - ceb / rammed earth / monolithic domes / reinforced concrete / cut and cover underground buildings tsunami - build at appropriate elevation from ocean / monolithic domes / rammed earth / reinforced concrete tornadoes - cut and cover underground structures / monolithic domes / reinforced concrete fires - have a safe distance from trees / thin trees in your area / ceb / rammed earth / monolithic domes / reinforced concrete / cut and cover builds nuclear - no structure can withstand a direct strike not even norad / if indirect use: ceb / rammed earth / monolithic domes / reinforced concrete / cut and cover underground buildings (builds that wont burn) people die in basement shelters / crushed / burned / buried if made in conventional wood frame houses. ok that is a little much but how does it apply to this video? well if fires are hot enough and your neighborhood is dense enough fires will spread from houses to house and material will get to auto ignition temperature and even if you spread rocks on your lawn your house will still burn because its wood. Use common sense: do not make your largest investment in life out of something that can burn / crushes from wind / or rot from water damage. Also think and use common sense: should i live in a area with a lot of wild fires and be in a structure that can burn? I do love your videos here but there is not a lot yo ucan do to protect your home vs wild fires except not buy a house in that area or use the appropriate structure / design / material for the area you choose to live else your going to end up with no home after its destroyed.

[@wompbozer3939]

unguidedone Nobody read it dude it was too long

[@MemoGrafix]

I read it I have a long attention-span

[@bobbycrosby9765]

Underground buildings for hurricanes? Lol, have fun drowning.

[@donsmith9081]

I was hoping for some actual useful info like using cement lap siding etc.