How to Fireproof Your Home

When you are building your home, there are a few things that you should think of incorporating into it, in order to make it as fireproof as can be. Other elements can be installed afterward as well. Here is what you need to do if you want to make sure that your home has the most chance to survive a fire.

Giving Your Family and Your Home a Chance to survive

Anything that you can do to lower the risk of fire in your home will be an important advantage, later on, if a fire should start inside one of its rooms. You should choose materials that will enable those who live inside the house to have a chance to survive if a fire breaks out. Keep in mind that a smoke exhaust system is necessary. It will provide time for everyone to evacuate, by removing the smoke to the outside and keeping the fumes close to the ceiling. This way, people can head outside, staying close to the floor, without losing consciousness.

Use fire-resistant Materials

Brick Walls

The most endurant materials that can be used on a house are bricks. Since they are created in an oven, they can withstand heat, up to 1,200°C. The only problem is that bricks are held together by mortar. Although it isn’t easy to melt, it will end up cracking at some point. Yet, a brick wall is the best fire-resistant material in construction, today.

Reinforced Glass

This is often less known, but reinforced glass can withstand high temperatures. Today, aluminum windows and doors, are treated for thermal protection. The glass that is normally used as a fire-resistant material, is reinforced, toughened, laminated glass.

Insert a Fire Sprinkler System

If you thought that fire sprinkler systems could not be installed inside a regular house, you guessed wrong. In fact, houses that benefit from this system rarely get to burn down. The fire remains limited to where it started, as the fire sprinklers extinguish it. If you are having your house built, check with the construction company about the possibility of installing fire sprinklers inside the ceilings of your home.

Install Fire Doors

When you install fire doors, you provide time for the people inside the rooms. This way, they won’t be affected by either fire or fumes, for some time. That is highly important when you are waiting for the firefighters to arrive on site, to get you out of harm’s way. When a fire is raging inside your home, you may find yourself isolated, unable to head out. But with fire doors, you will be safer for a period of time.

Keep Fire Detectors and Extinguishers in Working Order

These are two basic instruments that need to find their way into your house. Without fire detectors, you will never know if a fire starts in the middle of the night, or on the other side of your house. Fire extinguishers are tools that can help you save your home, by stopping the fire, while it is still possible to do so. Keep them handy, if you want them to be useful.