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Fireproofing your Home

Fire proofing your home

Tips on how to fireproof your home.

Summers in Australia are typically hot and dry. A perfect mixture of these weather conditions along with unprepared home owners, a nice summers day can turn into a large fire of death and destruction.

If you live in country areas or hillside locations surrounded by bush and are planning to build, you must use a licensed architect professional to design your new home or existing house so as to minimise the bush fire risk to your home.

In all cases, active fire protection is the critical work all homeowners need to think about. Homeowners can take some basic steps and structural measures to reduce their homes risk.

Top tips to fireproofing your home are:

  1. Remove fuel. Long grass, dead trees and flammable liquids are a bush fire best friend. Store all flammable liquids in safe fire proof storage locations. Mow grass and remove all dead trees, leaves and materials that are flammable. This is the biggest step and the first thing you should do. A professional licensed handy man can help with many of these jobs.
  2. Check windows, vents and crevices. Install stainless steel or bronze fly wire screens to your windows and doors. Fire resistant metal shutters. Use fine wire mesh to cover all cavities, enclosed areas under decks etc. A licensed professional carpenter can help with this.
  3. Good property access. Ensure your gateways and driveways are accessible for fire fighting vehicles with a minimum 3 meter wide access and a U turn area.
  4. Maintenance and surfaces. Paint or refurbish dried out timber surfaces and repair nooks and crannies where debris like dead leaves and grass can gather. Ask your licensed painter to give your surfaces another coat of paint
  5. Walls. Build using non flammable walling materials such as Hebel, Brick or fibre cement. Any gaps in the walls or roof also need to be sealed. Licensed brick layers, stonemasons and carpenters will consult with you to achieve the look you want with these materials.
  6. Decks. Timber decking is vulnerable to embers landing on top of. Debris accumulating underneath and on top of the bearers also adds to the fire trap. Use smaller gaps in your decking and fire resistant timbers. Once again a licensed carpenter will achieve this for you
  7. Roofing. A licensed roofing contractor will help you achieve well secured metal roofing with little or no gaps for embers to fly under into the roofing space reduces the wind born dangers. Fire resistant sarking also help.
  8. Skylights. Install wire reinforced glass or thermo plastic covers on skylights as plastic can melt and under intense heat, glass can break
  9. Sprinkler system. A bush fire sprinkler system that directs water onto the roof, windows and doors is one of the most effective ways to protect your home against radiant heat, embers and direct flames. Consult your licensed plumber.

The fireproofing tips above are easy steps to move toward a safer bush fire resistant home. These tips on how to fireproof your home are easy to apply to new homes as well as existing homes. Find licensed tradesmen in the state you live in near you to consult, who can carry out the correct procedures to ensure the project is done in a correct and safe manner. Remember you are gambling with your family’s lives if you choose to ignore the fire dangers.

Article written by: Josh Story

Josh Story is a licensed building supervisor in Australia, founder and owner of 'Trades Check'.
Follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

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