Eight Ways to Make Your Home More Fireproof
If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time worrying about how your home might literally disappear. Fire, for example, is exceptionally effective at turning your cozy home from a place where you play video games and make poor dietary decisions into a smoldering pile of insurance claims. And home fires are not uncommon: There were more than 374,000 home fires in the U.S. alone in 2022. Wildfires are always in the news—and they ‘re getting worse (thanks, climate change!)—but you don’t need a fire to see your home go up in smoke: Nearly half of residential fires start in the kitchen .
The good news is that you can take some fairly simple and very affordable steps to make your home more fire safe, no matter how old it is, where it is located, or how it was designed and built. By adding these components gradually, you can control costs while gradually reducing the risk of fire.
Paints, sprays and coatings
Fire needs fuel to burn, and your home is mostly made of fuel. Almost everything in the house, especially a wood-framed house, will happily go up in flames as soon as the fire starts.
-
Dye. One cheap way to at least slow down a fire is to use fire retardant paint . These paints are commonly known as ” intumescent paints “. They work by forming a protective coating (or “charcoal”) on their surface when exposed to fire. This protective coating prevents the fire from spreading—at least for a while. If you are going to paint your house anyway, you can easily replace it with fire retardant paint and make the area more fire safe at the same time.
-
Sprays. You can also purchase a fire retardant fabric spray that will make your curtains, upholstery, rugs and other fabrics a little harder to burn, which may at least slow down a fire in your home. Be sure to test it before spraying it everywhere to make sure it doesn’t stain or ruin your items.
-
Exterior. Choosing fire-resistant siding will further strengthen your home against fire spreading from outside sources. Cement siding, stucco, brick and metal siding will serve as a fire barrier. If you have wood siding, you can purchase inexpensive coatings that will greatly improve its fire resistance, but keep in mind that you will have to reapply it every few years to maintain its fire-resistant properties.
-
Roof. Roofing materials are classified by fire resistance : Class A materials (which include clay, concrete, slate and metal roofs) are the most fire resistant. If you don’t want to spend a ton of money on a new roof right now, you can also purchase DIY roofing coatings that will make your roof fire resistant while also protecting it from sun, weather, and other damage.
Clean up trash
Even if you don’t live in a wildfire-prone area, there is one simple thing you can do to make your home more fire-resistant: create a fire barrier around your home. This can be as simple as removing all flammable debris, such as fallen leaves, branches and other flammable materials. You can also trim trees to keep branches from getting close to the roof. Removing anything that can spread flames into your home reduces the likelihood that a fire in another home will spread to yours.
Construction Materials
-
Fireproof windows and doors. If you want to further protect your home from potential fires, replacing your front door with a 90-minute fire door like this one and replacing your windows with fire-rated, heat-reflective windows like these can make a difference. This isn’t exactly a cheap project (especially the windows), but these windows and doors will withstand the intense heat of a fire much longer, preventing it from engulfing your home and potentially giving firefighters time to put the fire out. flame.
-
Fire resistant insulation . While most standard fiberglass insulation is not itself flammable, it is usually covered with paper, which is very flammable . Choosing an insulation material such as rock wool can improve your home’s fire resistance if you’re already going to be opening up walls or ceilings for other projects.
-
Spark control. Fires often spread when sparks or embers travel into your home from another home. Installing a chimney cap with a spark arrestor and ember-resistant vents on the outside of your home can help prevent sparks from entering your home. And clearing a dryer vent clogged with kindling is an easy way to make your home a little more fire-safe than it was yesterday.