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Wildfire-resistant roofing refers to using building materials and construction techniques designed to minimize the risk of fire damage to roofs and homes during a wildfire. This is especially important in areas prone to wildfires, where traditional roofing materials such as wood shingles or asphalt may be vulnerable to ignition.
Embers, or firebrands, are small particles of combustible building material, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation that ignite during a wildfire. Windborne embers can fly up to two miles ahead of a wildfire perimeter and cause the ignition to 90% of destroyed homes.
Flying embers can land on or near your home, especially your roof, so it is critical to have a fire-resistant roof and reduce the chances of your home catching fire.
One common type of wildfire-resistant roofing is metal roofing, which is highly resistant to flames and flying embers. Metal roofing is typically more expensive than traditional roofing materials but can provide excellent protection against fire. Metal roofs can be made of various materials, such as aluminum, steel, or copper. They can be installed in shingle, tile, or standing seam configurations.
Another option is using fire-resistant shingles, typically made of asphalt or fiberglass, and treated with fire retardants to make them less flammable. These shingles can be slightly more expensive than traditional shingles. Still, they are highly effective in reducing the risk of fire damage.
Additionally, installing a fire-resistant underlayment beneath the roofing material can provide extra protection against embers and flames. This underlayment is typically made of non-combustible fiberglass or mineral wool.
Understanding roof classification differences is essential for choosing a wildfire-resistant covering.
• Class A roofs are preferred as they are the most fire-resistant roof covering type. They include asphalt fiberglass composition shingles, flat/barrel-shaped clay and cementitious tiles, and some metal materials.
• Class B roofs include treated wood shake roofs but are not allowed or recommended in most wildfire-risk locations.
• Class C roofs made from recycled plastic, rubber, or aluminum are treated with fire-resistant coating and installed with fire-resistant materials such as an additional fireproof layer. Still, the coatings can wear out over time due to weather and exposure.
Installing a fire-resistant roof is an important safety measure that can help protect your home and property from fire damage. Here are some steps to follow when installing a fire-resistant roof:
FLASH Buyers Guide to Resilient Homes – Wildfire Checklist
FEMA P-737, Home Builders’ Guide to Construction in Wildfire Zones
FEMA How to Prepare for a Wildfire
FEMA Rebuilding After a Wildfire
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), hail causes approximately $1 billion in damages to crops and property in the United States each year.
Hail can range in size from small pellets to softball-sized and can fall at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. When hail strikes roofs, it can damage shingles, tiles, or metal panels, leading to leaks and water damage. Additionally, hail can break windows, dent cars, and damage outdoor equipment and furniture.
An impact-resistant roof is a roofing system designed to withstand severe weather, such as strong winds, hailstorms, and flying debris. These roofs are typically made from durable materials, such as metal, concrete, or specially designed asphalt shingles, that are designed to absorb the impact of high-speed objects without sustaining significant damage.
Impact-resistant roofs are rated based on their ability to resist damage from hail and wind. The ratings are determined by industry-standard tests that involve dropping steel balls of various sizes and weights onto the roofing materials to simulate the impact of hail. Roofs that pass these tests receive a Class 1, 2, 3, or 4 rating, with Class 4 being the most impact-resistant.
Impact-resistant roof coverings require additional costs, but the investment is worthwhile for the added damage protection for homeowners. When you use these types of materials, you may also lower insurance premiums in areas prone to severe weather, such as Texas.
Choose impact-resistant roof coverings when reroofing or building a new home.
Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety – Hail Shingle Performance Ratings
Why do they matter?
Attic ventilator fans are an important component of a home’s cooling system during extreme heat situations, providing several benefits, such as reducing heat buildup, preventing moisture damage, extending roof life, and lowering energy costs.
What do I need to know?
Attic ventilator fans are installed in the attic of your home to help regulate the temperature and humidity levels in the space. The fan works by drawing hot and humid air out of the attic and replacing it with cooler, drier air from outside.
Attic ventilator fans come in different shapes and sizes, typically consisting of a motorized fan blade housed within a frame or housing. The fan is usually mounted on the roof or in a gable vent and is connected to a thermostat that automatically turns it on and off based on the temperature in the attic.
Some types of attic ventilator fans are powered by electricity, while others are powered by solar panels. They can be useful in reducing cooling costs by preventing the buildup of hot air in the attic, which can transfer heat into the living spaces below.
Extreme heat can cause damage to roofing materials, such as shingles, by causing them to expand and contract, leading to cracking and other damage. Attic ventilator fans help to reduce heat buildup, which can prolong the life of roofing materials and prevent premature deterioration.
Lowering Energy Costs: When attic temperatures rise, it can cause the air conditioning system to work harder to keep the living space cool, leading to higher energy costs. Attic ventilator fans help to reduce the temperature in the attic, which can reduce the load on the air conditioning system and lower energy costs.
Where do I start?
Contact a licensed roofer or HVAC specialty contractor to discover your installation options.
Masonry fireplaces and chimneys in earthquake-prone regions are particularly vulnerable to earthquake damage. Build or retrofit your home with a fireplace and chimney appropriate for an earthquake-prone area.
FEMA 232, Homebuilders’ Guide to Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction
FEMA. Repair of Earthquake-Damaged Masonry Fireplace Chimneys: South Napa Earthquake Recovery Advisory.
Why do they matter?
Strong foundations keep your house stable during earthquakes by resisting seismic forces that pass underneath it. A house with strong wall-to-foundation anchorage will help prevent your home from sliding or moving during an earthquake.
Your strong home foundation is one of the essential parts of your resilient home.
What do I need to know?
Where do I start?
More Resources:
FLASH. Resilient Design Guide: Concrete Construction Edition
Why do they matter?
Strong foundations help stabilize your house during earthquakes, floods, high winds, hurricanes, and tornadoes. They resist hydrostatic forces of water, carry wind forces down to the ground, and resist seismic forces as they pass underneath your home. A house with strong wall-to-foundation anchorage and connections will help prevent your home from collapsing, moving, sinking, sliding, tipping, or overturning during disasters.
A strong home foundation is one of the essential parts of your resilient home.
What do I need to know?
House design, budget, climate, location, soil conditions, and moisture are the main factors used when selecting a foundation type for your home. Three main types of foundations are commonly used for residential and single-family homes.
A house with a stem wall foundation has a wood-framed first floor attached to a raised concrete perimeter made from reinforced masonry (CMU or cinder blocks.) A pier-and-beam foundation is a system of vertical pillars or piers extended into the ground on footers. The piers support the joist system that holds up your home’s floor.
Retrofitting wood and raised foundations to strengthen their performance in disasters is cost-effective and relatively simple. Retrofitting poured concrete foundations may be more costly as it could require some drywall removal to create access.
Where do I start?
More Resources:
FLASH. Resilient Design Guide: High Wind Wood Frame Construction Edition
FLASH. Resilient Design Guide: Concrete Construction Edition
Why do they matter?
Cripple (or crawl space) walls are relatively short frame walls that extend from the top of your home’s foundation to the bottom of the first floor. These walls typically enclose a crawl space or are part of a stepped foundation when a home is on a slope or uneven ground. During an earthquake, these walls become stressed and can fail, leading to severe building damage.
What do I need to know?
Where do I start?
FEMA. Brace Cripple Walls.
FEMA DR-4193-RA2. Earthquake Strengthening of Cripple Walls in Wood-Frame Dwellings.
Why does it matter?
It is essential to strengthen soft and weak-story homes with first-floor open areas or parking underneath, such as garage apartments. This type of condition is especially vulnerable to collapse in earthquakes because the strength of the bottom story is substantially less than the stories above it.
What do I need to know?
Where do I start?
Where to explore and more:
FEMA 232, Homebuilders’ Guide to Earthquake-Resistant Design and Construction
Electrical strikes and lightning surges can damage and destroy appliances, electronic devices, and cause devastating house fires. Reduce or prevent lightning damage by installing a professional lightning protection system, whole house surge protection, or a series of point-of-use appliance and electronics protective devices.
No lightning protection device or system can guarantee 100% damage prevention from a direct lightning strike or lightning that enters through unprotected telephone, cable, or power lines to the house. However, you can avoid dangerous and expensive damage to your home.
The most comprehensive home lightning protection system is a lightning protection system. Lightning protection systems installed on your home provide a direct path for lightning to follow to the ground while bypassing your house structure, wiring, telephone, and cable lines. The system includes: strike termination devices, conductors, ground terminals, interconnecting bonding, and surge protection devices to prevent harmful electrical surges.
If you have trees taller than 10 feet, you may need to install lightning protection on those as well.
If you cannot afford a professionally-installed lightning protection system, consider a whole house surge protection system, multiple point-of-use protection devices for your cable system, computer, phone, televisions, and other electronic appliances. A whole-house surge protection system can be installed on the electric meter or the electrical panel to help protect the appliances and electronic equipment in your home, such as computers, TVs, and DVD players.
The Lightning Protection Institute has information about lightning protection in homes, including details on a Lightning Protection System.
Equipment such as heating, air conditioning, satellite dishes, or solar collectors mounted on the roof of a home or other elevated areas pose a risk during an earthquake due to their weight and mass. Preventing these elements from breaking loose can avoid damage and injury, and also help with recovery after an earthquake as these systems can remain operational. Additionally, anchoring these items makes them more resistant to high winds.
In a high-wind event such as a hurricane or tornado, keeping the roof on your home is a top priority as is protecting it from wind-borne debris and hail. A resilient roof system will provide wind-resistance and impact-resistance when it counts the most.
The roof is the primary structural element of the house, transferring the loads that act on the walls facing the wind into the walls that are parallel to the wind. The roof structure includes framing and roof sheathing, which is covered by a roof covering that serves as a barrier to weather and keeps water from entering the structure.
Roof framing can be composed of either rafters cut from dimensional lumber, often called “conventional framing,” or engineered trusses. Either can provide a strong and secure means of framing a roof. Proper design and installation of roof framing is critical, including the connections of any roof elements by a mechanical means such as metal connectors.
The main structural components of the roof assembly include:
The connections between the roof and walls are crucial, including:
Ensure the same strong roof design and connections are made throughout the house, including other areas such as porches, lanais, carports, and breezeways.
When windows break and allow wind to enter your home, the pressure can build until it eventually causes the weakest part of your home to rupture. Think of it like blowing up a balloon. Once the internal pressure reaches a certain level, it pops. Often, the first thing to “pop” in your home is your roof, so that is why it is critical to protect all your home’s openings with hurricane shutters, panels, or plywood.
When you protect your openings, they can resist impacts from windborne debris like flying missiles, tree limbs, or roofing materials that can break windows and breach doors and allow pressurization to occur. Protecting your openings and keeping them intact can also prevent wind-driven rain and moisture from entering your home.
Tested and approved, permanently mounted hurricane shutters, as well as temporary panels made from metal or other materials, can all serve as adequate protection for home’s openings. If you do not have a shutter system for your home and a hurricane threat is imminent, you can use emergency panels made with ⅝ inch thick plywood.
Begin by identifying all the openings on your home and evaluate any that are already wind- or impact-rated. Review shutter and opening protection options, and remember that you can mix and match different options so long as whatever you select is tested, approved, and certified to the relevant standards. For example, you may want to choose permanently mounted, motor-operated protection for the second story or hard to reach windows to avoid using ladders as a hurricane approaches.
Temporary, emergency plywood panels do not carry any testing or approval. However, you should still learn and plan for how to use them correctly if they are your only option.
FLASH recommends that you install certified, tested, and code-approved, wind- and impact-resistant opening protection to achieve the highest level of protection from windborne debris. However, in an emergency where a temporary measure is the only option, properly cut and mounted ⅝” plywood can provide adequate protection for exposed openings.
Consider hiring a contractor or handyman to create the temporary plywood covers, and do so before hurricanes threaten. If you plan, your local home improvement store may also be willing to cut each panel to fit and help you pre-drill the holes.
Having someone help you with this project will make things a lot easier. Form a team with neighbors and work together to make the project more manageable.
When wind forces enter your home, the pressure can build up until it eventually causes the weakest part of your home to rupture. Think of it like blowing up a balloon. Once the internal pressure reaches a certain level, it pops. That is why it is essential to protect all your home’s openings (windows, entry doors, garage doors, skylights, sliding doors, gable end vents, etc.) to keep the wind and pressure out.
When you protect your openings, they can resist impacts from hail or windborne debris like flying missiles, tree limbs, or roofing material that break windows and breach doors and allow pressurization to occur. Protecting your openings and keeping them intact can prevent wind-driven rain and moisture from entering your home as well.
One of the most effective opening protection options is to install impact-resistant windows.
Exterior window fire-rated shutters can protect windows and sliding glass doors in a wildfire. Reduce your home’s risk of fire by keeping the windows from breaking and preventing burning embers and firebrands from entering your home.
The garage door is usually the largest opening in your home. Protecting that opening is crucial to preventing a wildfire from breaching the building envelope and spreading to the interior.
In a wildfire, exterior doors experience the same types of exposure as exterior walls. However, exterior doors are usually much thinner and less fire-resistant than exterior walls and can burn much faster. It’s critical that the exterior doors remain intact to prevent a fire from entering your home. Consider purchasing and installing exterior doors made from fire-rated materials to better protect your home from the dangers of a wildfire.
Windblown embers from a wildfire can travel up to two miles. They can enter through your fireplace chimney flue, land on ignitable surfaces, and start a structure fire inside your home. If you have a fireplace, you could cause a wildfire in your neighborhood if embers fly from your chimney and collect on vegetation or ignitable surfaces like wood decks or roofs. The good news is that you can help prevent embers from entering or escaping your chimney by installing a simple, affordable fix.
Installing a welded wire, or woven wire mesh spark arrestor with openings less than 1/4 inch wide will prevent embers from entering or leaving your chimney.
Verify that you have working spark arrestors in all chimneys and stovepipes in your home. Have a professional inspection and cleaning at least once per year and twice per year if you reside in a high wildfire risk area.
You can prevent damage to your home and help protect your neighborhood by combining exterior fire sprinklers with proven wildfire mitigation steps such as fuel management. Exterior fire sprinklers help protect your home outside by wetting the potential ignition zones like your roof and deck. Interior residential fire sprinklers protect you from fires that start when flying wildfire embers enter an unprotected chimney. Exterior fire sprinklers help protect your home outside by wetting the potential ignition zones like your roof and deck.
Heat from a wildfire can fracture glass and cause it to fall out, potentially allowing flames and firebrands to enter your home. If an opening is breached and embers enter your home, fire can spread rapidly.
Laminated glass. Laminated glass provides resistance to windborne firebrands. If a firebrand strikes with enough momentum to break the glass, the plastic film in the core of the glass will keep the glazing in the frame, allowing the broken glass to continue to resist firebrand impacts, embers, and hot gases. If the plastic film in the core gets sufficiently hot, the pane will delaminate whether or not the glass has been broken. If laminated glass is specified, it should either be protected by shutters, as discussed below, or combined with tempered glass in an IGU.
Tempered glass. Tempered glass is more resistant to heat and flames than laminated glass or annealed glass. The resistance of tempered glass can be enhanced with a low-e coating or a proprietary reflective coating. Firebrands with sufficient momentum can break tempered glass. To avoid breakage, the glass can be protected by shutters. Another alternative is to specify and install an IGU with a laminated glass inner pane.
Low-emissivity (low-e) coating. Glass with a low-e coating provides a higher level of resistance to radiant heat than other types of glazing because the coating reflects radiant heat, reducing the probability that the heat will be able to enter the building. The coating should be on the inner surface of the exterior pane.
Proprietary fiberglass-reinforced translucent glazing. This product is available for skylights and walls. The skylight material has a Class A rating. See Fact Sheet #5, Roofs, for a discussion of this type of rating.
Insulated glazing unit. An IGU consists of two or three panes of glass that are separated by a sealed air space. Double-paned annealed units last about 10 minutes in a wildfire, twice as long as single-paned windows. In many cases, 10 minutes is long enough to provide protection from the fire. If the first pane fails, the second pane must still be penetrated. Laminated glass, tempered glass, and glass with a low-e coating can be combined in various ways into an IGU.
Annealed glass. Annealed glass (also known as common float glass) is commonly used in residential windows. Annealed glass is the most susceptible to wildfires of the various glass types and is not recommended for homes in wildfire zones unless protected by shutters.
Ceramic glass. This specialty glass is effective at resisting flames, but it transmits radiant heat readily. If ceramic glass is used for exterior glazing, heat that is high enough to cause ignition can be transmitted into the interior of the building. Ceramic glass is not recommended for homes in wildfire zones.
Plastic glazing. Acrylic and polycarbonate are often used in skylights and sometimes in windows. Because plastic glazing can melt during a wildfire, it is not recommended for homes in wildfire zones.
In fire-rated walls, use windows and sliding glass doors that are commensurate with the fire rating of the wall. For example, a 1½-hour rated window is intended to be used in a wall with a 2-hour rating, and a 3/4-hour rated door is intended to be used in a 1-hour rated wall. However, you can use a window with a higher fire rating. If a fire-rated wall is not specified, use an IGU with a metal or metal-clad wooden frame.
Exterior walls can ignite from a wildfire’s radiant and convective heat. A fire on an exterior wall of your home can ‘bridge’ to more vulnerable areas such as eaves, soffits, vents, and windows. Protect your home by making your exterior walls fire resistant.