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Fire Resistant Design Considerations for Your Home

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Nobody wants to experience a fire in their home. If serious enough, it can burn your house to the ground and potentially even cause serious harm or death to you and your loved ones. Thankfully there are a variety of ways you can make your home more fire resistant. From the actual construction of your home itself, to additions like siding, house wrap, and smoke curtains, you have a plethora of options when it comes to keeping your home from being ruined by fire damage.

Let’s go in-depth on some of these right now so you can make the best choice for yourself and your family in terms of fire resistance.

  1. Fire Resistant Siding

Steel siding is a great option for fire-resistance. Not only does it require almost no maintenance, it lasts an incredibly long time and is super resistant to damage as well. Steel is almost completely invulnerable to fires, weather events, and other disasters. Fire resistant house siding also has the added benefit of being extra resilient against high-heat exposure, meaning it won’t even melt or burn if you happen to get sparks from a grill on it, for instance.

  1. ICF Construction

Having your home built with an ICF system is another great way to prevent fire damage. ICF fire resistance is next to note. ICFs are known to be extremely resistant to fire and can help stop the spread of flames. They are also completely air-tight, making it hard for a fire to breathe and grow larger if one does happen to break out.

  1. Smoke Curtains

It’s a well-known fact that most deaths in house fires occur from smoke inhalation, rather than burning. This is why smoke curtains are crucial to helping ensure you and your family’s survival in the event of a fire.

Smoke curtains are stored in the ceiling of your home, and they only drop down in the event of a fire. These curtains can be placed in such a way that they completely block doorways, elevators, stairways, and atriums from smoke getting through.

Though, they can be easily walked through. The four main types of smoke curtains are perimeter curtains, draft curtains, vertical smoke curtains, and elevator smoke curtains. You can install one or multiple types, depending on the level of protection you want.

  1. Proper House Wrap

House wrap is another great way to add additional protection against fires. Some house wraps are made from material that is resistant to flames, or even fire-retardant. This is a great option for those of you have flammable siding but aren’t willing or able to replace it with fire-resistant siding. Comparing house wraps like typar vs tyvek is important when deciding which is best for your home.

Having a house wrap installed beneath your siding will create a sealed-off barrier that keeps flames from reaching the siding of your home and sending it completely up in flames.

There is No Excuse to Let Your Home Burn Down

As you can see, there are many great choices for giving your home extra protection against fires. Whether you choose to install a quality house wrap, smoke curtains, fire-resistant siding, build your home with an ICF wall system, or use some combination of these four strategies, there is no reason you should ever be in danger of burning alive should your home catch fire.

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