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Building a modern home in the woods

johnnyrodgers.is

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Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#501

Post by njarboe »

throwaway48375 wrote: post #358
njarboe wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost everywhere in California could burn in the next 10-30 years. Huge fires around LA every year. The Oakland hills fire burned down thousands of homes. Santa Rosa burned twice in three years. Santa Cruz, etc. Maybe somewhere in the central valley or the Mojave desert would meet your requirements.

The desert burns too. Source: I live there

I guess much of the land that burns around L.A. is classified as a desert by some. I was thinking more of the Mohave or Death Valley areas where there is much less fuel to burn and preventing structures from burning is a bit easier.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#502

Post by StillBored »

cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #212
StillBored wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And 100A isn't unusual, particularly for anything built more than 20 years ago.

My 100 year old house in the US has 100A service- though I'm thinking of upgrading to 200A service to help with Level 2 EV charging.

It was probably upgraded from ~30A at some point in the past as a requirement of a lender. Presumably it has circuit breakers? Those weren't even a choice in a 100 year old house when it was built AFAIK. I've been curious how well these jobs are generally done, when I was a kid it was a big selling point to have circuit breakers instead of fuses. I've always been curious how through some of those upgrades were, did they replace all the wiring too, does everything have grounds, etc. Or did they just pull a few 240 lines for AC/range/etc?

https://www.thespruce.com/service-panels-changed-in-the-1900...

Which says 100A didn't become common until the 1960's.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#503

Post by harambae »

prawn wrote: post #450
chris1993 wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately even a clear couple of acres won't protect against ember attack. The house can be built to be fully fire-resistant and you're still faced with stay-or-go decisions when the next fire arrives.

Do American houses in risky areas have roof-sprinkler systems? To keep the roof wet to deny embers a foothold? https://www.google.com/search?q=roof+sprinkler+fire+australi...

They're starting to be required on most Maine homes. I don't know all the details, but it came up recently in a discussion with my builder.

I think this link is for commercial, but there's something analogous...

https://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/25/title25se...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#504

Post by harambae »

bogomipz wrote: post #471
bduerst wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like the flat roofs in Davos were a conscious decision to safeguard against avalanches.

From the link: >" In order to guard against dangerous avalanches in snow-covered Davos, the houses were covered with flat roofs." I wish they had detailed how flat roofs guards against an avalanche? What is the logic/physics at work there?

roof avalanches, presumably

https://www.webcenterfairbanks.com/2021/04/04/spring-melt-me...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#505

Post by throwaway48375 »

njarboe wrote: post #501
throwaway48375 wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The desert burns too. Source: I live there

I guess much of the land that burns around L.A. is classified as a desert by some. I was thinking more of the Mohave or Death Valley areas where there is much less fuel to burn and preventing structures from burning is a bit easier.

I live in the Mojave desert. Fires are a real problem here. I know people who have lost their homes because of them. We tend to have low humidity and high winds which are a bad combo. The desert isn't all sand dunes like people think. The dry brush burns really well. Here is what it looks like when it goes.

https://i.imgur.com/VJ7ENis.jpg

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#506

Post by bonestamp2 »

tlavoie wrote: post #478
bonestamp2 wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of this may be obvious (especially after you read it) so I apologize if this comment is unhelpful... The fires typically start in open spaces, so if your house is right next to open space, you're at a high risk of fire (and this is basically how your fire insurance rates are determined). Your best protection against fire is other houses. If the fire has to burn through 500 other houses to reach yours, chances ar…

I'd love to see a source for these statements, because it directly contradicts what I've seen in the Fire Smart BC ( https://firesmartbc.ca/ ) materials. I won't claim to be an expert, but am a local volunteer firefighter who has gone through some wildfire training. Forest fires create their own weather, including winds that drive burning embers ahead of the blaze, raining firebrands all over everything. Having numer…

> Having numerous houses between the fire and your place just means the firefighters are already busy. The response to this is a combination of building material selection and landscaping.

I generally agree with everything you stated, I think we're just talking about different scales. Instead of several houses, I was talking about having several subdivisions ("500 houses") between your house and the open space.

It has happened, but it is not the average fire that starts in an open space and burns through several subdivisions. Structure protection is often the highest priority in those cases and the fire doesn't usually get too deep into a subdivision. When that does happen, there is almost no prep you could have done to save your house, because as you mentioned, the natural forces that create that kind of situation are virtually unstoppable -- as we recently saw in Colorado (Marshall), or California in 2018 (Woolsey), and Ft McMurray in 2016.

My point was, for your average fire that can be fought with enough water/phos-chek/etc, being as far away from that open space is your best protection. That's obvious to us now, but I didn't think about it when I first moved to California, so I wanted to put that on OP's radar.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#507

Post by GnarfGnarf »

m0ngr31 wrote: post #367
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #186

Big Achilles Heel: plowing the road to clear the snow so you can get to the hospital when somebody's appendix is about to burst.

Typically you plow right after it snows.

Do you have any idea what it's going to cost to do your own private plowing of a road that long and remote?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#508

Post by m0ngr31 »

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #507
m0ngr31 wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically you plow right after it snows.

Do you have any idea what it's going to cost to do your own private plowing of a road that long and remote?

Well I do it already. About 1,000 feet for me right now. Once you have a tractor, it's just fuel and time.
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