[Strawbale] Breathability of Wood Shakes and Roofing Felt

[John Swearingen]

Last month we spent three weeks on 4-hour evacuation notice.  This gave me
lots of time to think about fire storms, and how to protect buildings.  I
was glad that we had a straw-bale cabin, and it was immediately clear that,
by virtue of its construction it was the most defensible building.  Often
fires are low-intensity, burring easily ignited underbrush and moving
through an area fairly quickly.  A wood-clad and framed house could be
ignited by even a low-intensity fire that a SB home might easily survive.  

Sometimes the fire is much more intense, and the heat will go through
windows and ignite the interior.  We put foil on our windows and hoped for
the best.  Because I love exposed rafters in the soffit, the building is
vulnerable to having the overhangs ignite.  Next time, I'll plaster the
soffits!

John

John Swearingen
 SKILLFUL MEANS
design and construction
www.skillful-means.com


-----Original Message-----
From: strawbale-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:strawbale-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Amy and Jim Rankin
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 10:22 AM
To: strawbale at listserv.repp.org
Subject: Re: [Strawbale] Breathability of Wood Shakes and Roofing Felt


When the fire gets that hot and close, it can even ignite flammable things 
inside the windows (like curtains), and I hope no one would still be there 
trying to save the structure, so at that point I believe the homeowner is 
out of luck.

Jim

 I thought my protection from
> fire was high until I read about a SB home in California that burned 
> to the ground, and it was as fire proofed as mine is.  Problem is that 
> the trees were close, it was a fire storm and the heat burned through 
> all that protection and set the house on fire.  I was shocked and 
> dismayed that it could happen, not being aware just how devastating a 
> fire storm can be.
>
> regards,
> dion
>


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