Real estate General topic

[kenmbz]

Another mention of ADUs, increasing housing density and making sure fires have fuel.

Wife's cousins have 3 in the neighboring 4 house yards.
Noise, having a new view of the back of a small house etc.
More firewood.

Welcome to the next fast traveling fire.

 

[paulsharvey]

Unit density is a very double edged sword. Denser allows lower pricing, and also less vegetation to start fires, and all; but it also can make the fires harder to fight. Now, maybe they can regulate say, 25 ft fire breaks on the perimeter of new communities, like we have 25 ft landscape buffers? At the same time, you also have the question of how much you want the state/county/city regulating private property land use...

Edit: I don't know that 25 ft fire breaks would change much, or if 50 ft would work, but you also reach a point where you can't realistically mandate 200 ft, and still be able to build functional developments

 

[arto98607]

So, I dont know how insurance might work with that; but I've heard from others in FLa, we get our letter "replace or provide inspection of roof, or insurance is canceled". Owner puts perm metal roof on, and boom, rates go Up. Even though the roof is more storm resistant.... (more fire resistant too)

I would be in favor of insurance offering discounts to people who remove trees near the home (that applies to storms, fires, ice storms, and general tree damage), but they never seem to offer a carrot, just a stick.

I was talking with my previous insurance agent many years ago and mentioned we had the roof replaced with a metal roofing, and was told the premium will go up due to higher replacement cost!

 

[2manyrocks]

When I got roof quotes about 2 years ago, there wasn’t much difference between shingles and a screw down metal roof. Standing seam different situation.

 

[paulsharvey]

When I got roof quotes about 2 years ago, there wasn’t much difference between shingles and a screw down metal roof. Standing seam different situation.

Metal roofs vary widely. I've never liked the screw directly through singles to OSB installation. I prefer 1x4 (or 2x4) firing strips.

When I redid mine, I did want to do metal, but it was going to be around $2500 vs $1500 for shingles, and also i had a short time line, and shingles were fast.

 

[2manyrocks]

I would never suggest relying on screws into Osb without using pine furing strips. Also, using dome head screws should extend the life of the sealing gaskets compared to screws where the gasket edges are exposed.

The actual lifespan of today’s shingles vs screw down roofs, I don’t know.

 

[ultrarunner]

I was talking with my previous insurance agent many years ago and mentioned we had the roof replaced with a metal roofing, and was told the premium will go up due to higher replacement cost!

I was told the mandated shake had to go so I went with high end Presidential Comp Laminated shingles... with permit.

The reroof cost the same as the home did new.

Agent said I will see a rate reduction but when submitted company said underwriting changed and no credit for the new roof.

 

[ultrarunner]

As a native Californian I find hurricanes and especially tornadoes terrifying. We don't get those. I have some understanding of fire having spent a few years on fire crews. I used to enjoy earthquakes until the '89 one which was the first that actually had me worried.

Here's a pic of a burned out house from the Palisades fire that I grabbed at random, literally the first I clicked on in the tool to check building status:

There's a lot of pics like this, with intact vegetation around the house. Those trees appear to be Eucalyptus which are famous for being highly flammable. They didn't even burn. The houses are the fuel. Tree preservation ordinances aren't the problem here.

I hope the residents got out with all that was important to them, they're safe and housed now, and they can rebuild quickly.

Maybe it depends on the type of fire?

Santa Cruz was a canapy fire in very tall redwoods and nothing done at ground level would have done much to mitigate

 

[WinterDeere]

25 ft fire breaks on the perimeter of new communities…

25 ft isn’t a “fire break”, its
A “spark gap”.

I grew up “in town”, cordoned blocks of 3/4 or 1 acre, block after block after block. It allowed a reasonable 200 feet on-center spacing of houses, so more than 100 feet between nearest walls. Didn’t seem unreasonable, it was still relatively “high density”.

 

[paulsharvey]

25 ft isn’t a “fire break”, its
A “spark gap”.

I grew up “in town”, cordoned blocks of 3/4 or 1 acre, block after block after block. It allowed a reasonable 200 feet on-center spacing of houses, so more than 100 feet between nearest walls. Didn’t seem unreasonable, it was still relatively “high density”.

That means you need atleast 1 acre per home, and in a population density of that, that's asking an aweful lot. Also, by default, that would raise the costs of the developments. It's not an easy solution.

Also, there is risk in every place. Hurricanes in gulf and SE, earthquakes in Cali/PNW/Ask and Ozarks, tornados are basically a nation wide thing, fires, blizzards, ect.