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A good Los Angeles rebuild with fire-resistant houses

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Large-scale weather events are becoming increasingly common, and the tendency to rebuild buildings after one disaster without upgrading them to prevent another would be foolish. For decades, Los Angeles (LA) has had some strong building codes for earthquakes and localized fires, but large-scale fires are new to the region and appear to be a trend.

Fortunately, there are various technologies and methods for rebuilding after a fire. Still, aggressive action at the state, county, and city levels will be needed to ensure that policies and regulations are updated to provide architects and builders with clear guidance on what will be permitted for new structures to avoid such catastrophes. Repeat yourself in the future.

This week, let’s explore strategies such as fire-resistant materials, advanced building technologies and innovative housing solutions to rebuild and adapt for a safer future. Then, we’ll close with my product of the week: the Google Pixel Watch 3, which my wife gave me last Christmas.

Strengthening the house against fire

I grew up in Orange County, California and trained to fight fires. I now live in Bend, Ore., where we have major fires every year.

Last year, my wife insisted that we needed an SUV or trailer big enough to escape the fire when we approached the house. I reasoned that it would make more sense to fortify our homes against fire so we could shelter in place because, as we’ve seen in previous fires, and during the L.A. fire, egress can be problematic as roads tend to get clogged during rapid evacuation. Residents and fire crews are trying to get inside.

Like most houses in the area, our house is primarily made of wood and is unlikely to survive a fire. We replaced the roof with insulation and metal composite. We installed solar panels and Tesla batteries in case of power outages and replaced our siding with fire-resistant ones. Hardy boardWhich will smoke but not burn when heated.

We are located near a river and we have a swim spa, both of which can be used as a water source if the hydrant system becomes oversubscribed as it was in LA. rolling shutter That can further insulate the home from fire and prevent windows from breaking, which helps prevent fire from entering the home.

Our next step is to install an exterior home anti-fire sprinkler system that will help protect the house from combustion, as the house is still wood framed. This is the service we are looking at Frontlinewhich specializes in home fire protection.

Costs for this type of retrofitting are steep. Roofing was about $20,000, siding was about $40,000, shutters (automatic) were between $2,000 and $5,000 per window, and frontline sprinkler systems were between $20,000 and $40,000. However, the result is that the structure must now survive external fire events and allow us to safely shelter in place.

As I was finishing this column, my wife shared a link the story of one of the surviving houses.

Apparently, the homeowner paid between $100,000 and $150,000 to install his own fire hydrant and a high-efficiency pump that took over after the hydrant system lost pressure. He saves his house and two others. So, a little foresight resulted in three families not fighting insurance companies and FEMA and trying to find a place to live in a saturated rental market.

I think the frontline solution would have the same benefit for me, but it’s something to think about.

Redesigning Los Angeles

As of this writing, the problem with the LA fires is that homes are not designed to withstand wildfires. Hydrant systems—and this was the problem with most of them—could not maintain pressure in wildfires, access during evacuation was problematic, the ability to respond to fires was too slow, and winds were near hurricane levels, rendering aircraft mostly useless until the winds dropped.

This ultimately means that current firefighting technology is inadequate to deal with fires of this magnitude. As with earthquakes, homes need to be built to withstand fires rather than relying on centralized firefighting resources to put them out.

Additionally, as the government recovers from these losses, there will be significant revenue problems with significant increases in spending. Revenue from property taxes would be reduced, and a large number of people would not be able to pay the reduced amount, as they are now homeless (and possibly unemployed). Federal funding will not be enough to rebuild.

Many of these now-homeless homeowners have lost their fire insurance, and it may be impossible to get insurance in a new, similar structure.

These cities need to be rebuilt quickly. They need to build new structures that are much more fire resistant, and they need to rethink many of these areas to better protect them if fires do happen again, as they probably will.

Rapid rebuilding with manufactured homes

One way to rebuild quickly is by using approved manufactured homes I’m not talking about typical mobile homes, which are often considered unsafe in high winds and not particularly fire resistant, but more like manufactured homes. Blue Homes They are designed like aircraft to withstand a variety of extreme weather events and can be installed on an existing foundation in a matter of hours.

These houses are mainly made of fire-resistant materials and are tested to be wind-resistant. Depending on supplies, they can be assembled very quickly by relatively small teams so homeowners can quickly return to their homes.

Blue Homes packages typically include all fixtures and major appliances installed prior to shipping, making them ideal for this type of problem. A blue home costs from $285,000 to $635,000 but can exceed this range depending on the number of modules and accessories.

3D printing fire-resistant houses

This new technology usually uses a special cement that can be applied through a nozzle to quickly build a house. 3D-printed houses are highly fire resistant unless you put a flammable roof over them. They can be built in a few days with a small crew (usually about three to four people) and can be designed to order.

A 3D-printed house typically cost In the range of $30,000 and $100,000, though larger homes can be more expensive than the $150,000 to $450,000 cost of traditionally built homes.

Often, building codes must be changed to accommodate 3D-printed homes, and given how quickly they go up, timely inspections in a disaster area can be a problem during construction. However, this technology is probably the fastest method of rebuilding with less manpower. While the first 3D-printed houses looked quite strange, later structures combined the construction methods. This video shows a new design that looks much more traditional.

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Saving money and getting back home faster makes this technology almost ideal, except for one big problem: Few contractors have the necessary equipment and training right now. This suggests that a government financing effort to subsidize the training and equipping of builders would be timely if they are to rebuild quickly and recover tax revenue.

Wrapping Up: Modernizing Building Codes for Fire Safety

We need to rethink our building code. For example, This is the architect Fire-resistant homes are special, but city requirements resulted in avoidable damage due to outdated building codes.

This effort needs to begin with regulatory agencies revising building codes to enable more fire-resistant and improved building methods to address this need. Buildings need to be safe, but regulatory agencies are slow to update codes for fear of lawsuits if they get it wrong.

Yet, unless these governments step up and revise their codes regarding these extreme weather events, people may find their cities unsafe and unaffordable to flee.

As I write this, the utility company is at it again accused This started some of the recent fires.

Whatever the cause, a more effective sensor and response network is essential to catch fires while they are still small and controllable. This requires improved drone firefighting technology and greater reliance on satellites for early fire detection. Current technology falls short, and we’re not using AI, drones or sensors to their full potential.

We need to create neighborhoods that can better survive such events, but that starts with re-prioritizing cities to reflect a changing world.

A final idea is Arcologywhich is a very large structure that can be more easily defended and has a town or city with living, working and recreational facilities. These will be extremely easy to protect against the increasingly dangerous weather events we anticipate. As our climate deteriorates, relocating to another planet may be the only viable solution that will keep humans reliably safe.

Google Pixel Watch 3

I used to collect mechanical watches but switched to smartwatches some time ago. Generally, I prefer a watch like this TicWatch Pro 5 which will have a more traditional look and use a metal band. However, a metal band that’s either a little too big or too small can be uncomfortable, and if you’re not careful, it can scratch your ride while cleaning or working on it.

Currently priced at $300 (discounted from $349), Google Pixel Watch 3 Features a rubber coating and wristband, offering surprising comfort even when worn hard for heart rate monitoring. It builds in Fitbit functionality for accurate exercise recording, and there’s an LTE version for $100 more (which I didn’t get, sadly).

The watch screen is up to 2000 nits, which makes it highly usable outdoors. However, it burns through the battery much faster (two days) than my old tickwatch. Charging is done via a magnetic charger rather than wireless inductive charging, like every smartwatch I’ve owned, but not the Apple Watch.

The Google Pixel Watch 3 is especially useful for competitive runners as it measures your time and distance and compares it to past efforts, pushing you to surpass them. It will integrate with other Google devices such as the Nest Camera to view photos on the watch or Google TV as a remote control, and it will act as an interface to your phone so you can chat with your watch (not all smartwatches do this).

The watch also has several safety features, including a timer that will trigger an alert when your set time expires (say you’re on a suspicious date or there’s a sketchy Uber driver) and fall detection that sends an alert if you take a hard fall. . You can notify contacts from your location watch or let them know you can’t answer because you’re already on a call.

You can buy replacement bands for watches with metal bands, but I’m fine with the one it came with. The watch is water resistant down to 50 meters. Oh, and you can get up to $300 back if you trade in your old watch (which I didn’t).

While the Pixel Watch 3 isn’t as feature-rich or as long-lasting as my old TicWatch Pro 5, it’s more comfortable, does a better job tracking my sleep and steps, and is easy to use as my go-to product for the week.

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