Australia is known for its serene space and luxurious homes. However, if you are living in a bushfire suffered area, then it isn’t going to be of any help to you. After all, you don’t want to spend half of your time in preventing bushfire rather than getting summer tan.
While building homes in bushfire prone areas, you need to be very careful while deciding on specifications, additional design and construction parameters. While deciding on the building requirements, make sure you or your designers have multiple choices as it will provide multiple options. You can select appropriately but make sure that you follow the Australian building standards and regulations.
However, you don’t have to avoid using timber window and door frames just ensure that they are bushfire prone areas homes. However, as per Australian standard AS 1530, the timber window and doors are tested to meet the flicker and spark exposure making them bushfire free.
It is important to keep your family and home safe. It could be easily achieved by following the right things.
#1. Designing Home
There are many things that you must consider while building a home such as metal shutter windows, house designs, water supply systems and ember proof house. Planning the landscape helps in building the bushfire prone areas home. Also, the vegetation should be maintained properly so that they can reduce wind speed, fire intensity, filtering embers and provide shelter.
#2. Spark Proof House
You can spark proof your home to protect your home from fire or burning metal. It will prevent the fire from entering the building through windows, doors or floorboards. You can easily accomplish it by:
- Close all the opening like underfloor areas or eaves.
- Proper insulation for the tiles roofs.
- Spark proof the windows, ventilators, skylights or doors by using solid screens.
- Seal the gaps of roofs.
- Make sure the flute spaces are sealed shut.
These are the small prevention steps you can take to stop the fire from entering your home.
#3. Shutters
Another type of protection you can provide to your home is metal shutters. The best thing is that you can pull the shutters to cover your window and skylights to avoid fire.
- They help in providing protection from the blazing heat.
- To avoid any type of extra expenses, you can just place them on the window that is more likely to suffer bushfire like the window facing the garden.
- Avoid using ordinary blinds as they can be a fire hazard to your home. They are made up of combustible material that can provide you shades but may actually start sparks.
- Also, the windborne debris won’t be able to break the glass.
You can also try metal flywire or security mesh to ensure proper safety from debris.
#4. Flammable Storage
In order to make your home bushfire prone areas home, make sure to store fuel supplies and chemical isolated areas.
- Separate flammable and inflammable items and store them separately.
- Make sure all the sheds are fireproofed.
- Store chemicals and flammable material in a different home or building.
- Maintain the tidiness of the building and sheds to ensure that there is no material that can spark a fire.
These are the main factors that are going to protect you from the bushfire incidences. Apart from this, it is better to consult someone who has experience in building bushfire prone areas home. They can give you a much better advice on the best Australian locations and landscapes.
