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defrost01/17/20253 repliesview on HN

Steel frame, flame retardant insulation and cladding, rammed earth, .. these are all options.

Flammable trees well away from a leaf free clean guttered (or no gutter) house are also no compromise requirements.

See: https://research.csiro.au/bushfire/ and https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/services/testing-and-ce...

for the rabbit hole of Australian Bushfire housing certification and testing.

Burning Down the House: Trial by Fire CSIRO- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtawn7IAnI


Replies

throw0101a01/17/2025

> Steel frame, flame retardant insulation and cladding, rammed earth, .. these are all options.

Don't even have to go that far.

Wood framing is fine: make your cladding stucco would do a lot (or brick). You can even have siding as cement-base stuff is available:

* https://www.jameshardie.com/blog/siding-types/what-is-fiber-...

You could have metal or clay roofing, but shingles with a Class A rating is available as well:

* https://www.ameriproroofing.com/blog/asphalt-roofing-shingle...

sdiupIGPWEfh01/17/2025

> flame retardant insulation

Which are almost definitely known to the state of California to cause cancer.

show 1 reply
Dig1t01/17/2025

Yes absolutely, and as another poster pointed out, earthquake codes exist. Metal framing is probably a bit easier to adapt to the same earthquake codes that timber framing has.