It’s wildfire season in 2018. If you don’t live in the western half of the United States (or other areas on fire), this probably doesn’t mean much to you. If you do live in the western United States, this isn’t news to you, and you’re probably sick of the smoke already.
(Comments from Blogger)
2018-08-14 by Aaron
Yea, I’m reading up some info on the build for Burning Man this year, full of comments saying the smoke is incredibly bad. Mostly not down at the surface, but all over the sky and off to the distance to the surrounding mountains. Horrible, but probably useful for us all there since it’s apparently keeping the temperatures down to high 90’s/low 100’s.
gulp
2018-09-20 by Val
I read the following article on building a fire-proof (probably just -resistant) house. It’s got the great title of rocks don’t burn: https://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi068_rocks_dont_burn
The answer is basically: Steel metal roof (unventilated, to keep out those firebrands), rock wool insulation and fiber cement cladding. Simple but kind of expensive stuff.
Joe Lstiburek has a great number of common sense building science insights, though he doesn’t address economical existing structure enhancement very often…