# Opinion: avoiding costly mistakes in wildfire prevention when remodeling in 2026 **URL:** \ **Category:** Creston\ **Created:** [April 1, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://www.berkeleyfirewise.org/t/opinion-avoiding-costly-mistakes-in-wildfire-prevention-when-remodeling-in-2026/300 "2025-04-01T18:35:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichelThouati](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/www.berkeleyfirewise.org/michelthouati/32/179_2.png) [@MichelThouati](https://www.berkeleyfirewise.org/u/MichelThouati)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://www.berkeleyfirewise.org/t/opinion-avoiding-costly-mistakes-in-wildfire-prevention-when-remodeling-in-2026/300/1 "2025-04-01T18:35:13Z")
These are brief notes from a presentation given at Creston Firewise’s 2025 annual meeting, combined with some of the questions, and updated for 2026. **This should NOT be considered advice from a specialist** , but simply the opinion of a well-informed neighbor. **House remodeling projects in 2026** - If you are doing any remodeling (and even if you aren’t), for sure consider screening your vents and gutters with 1/8" or smaller metal mesh. Also enclose any part of your house that has deck or stairs lower than 4 ft, to stop both combustible debris and embers from gathering there. - Also strongly consider upgrading the bottom 6" of your house (or more) with truly noncombustible material (such as concrete) - In general, avoid wood or other combustible materials in new materials if you can at all. If your project specs call for combustible materials accessible to wildfire, conduct deep due diligence to establish the fact that there really is no noncombustible replacement. - do not trust what your contractor tells you: in many case they simply DO NOT KNOW. For instance, many think that Trex is an appropriate material for decks: your insurance company (or, more exactly, IBHS, the big insurance consortium that conducts wildfire research and develops standards) does not agree. - Wood-shingled roofs: do not consider a wood-shingled roof in 2026. These roofs are the criterion most associated with ignition of a house in a wildfire. Some research find them correlated with the ignition of up to 10 more neighboring houses. They should not be permittable, but, seemingly, some of them still make it through permits - new roof: the most fireproof roof is a tile roof, probably followed by a metal roof. Slate roofs are hard to consider because they are so heavy and typically require a different roof line. Tile roofs themselves are quite heavy (although not as much as tile), and may often not be retrofittable to existing shingled roofs—so the typical replacement consideration should be a similar class-A roof, or a metal roof - gutters: only consider metal gutters (or none). Avoid copper of possible because copper is MUCH harder/costlier to screen. - gutter guards: only consider metal gutter guards, if possible stainless steel, no more than 1/8" mesh (consider 1/16" mesh if suitable in your case; for instance, one tree that sheds on mine is a deodar cedar, where 1/16" mesh is much better) - Siding is not an overly critical part of your home’s wildfire resilience. So do not fixate on upgrading your siding. What is most important, though: - enclosing eaves: while siding is not as important, enclosing eave with noncombustible material (typically concrete board( can make a significant difference, as eaves will trap heat from embers combusting at the base of walls, and very possibly result in a house breach. Enclosing eaves, while not totally inexpensive, is MUCH cheaper than redoing siding, and is likely a much more valuable upgrade. Good quality concrete board can look like wood and be very hard to distinguish from it, so do not let aesthetic considerations keep you away from enclosing your eaves - Windows: if you upgrade any windows, don’t stop before you pick double glazed double tempered windows. You will regret the small cost increment if you don’t 🙂 IBHS, a consortium of insurance companies, now requires double glazed double tempered windows for its PLUS certification even though CA generally only requires double glazed single tempered windows. - Doors: if upgrading an exterior door, consider paying a 10-20% upcharge and making it fire-resistant for 30 minutes or more. I have a fire-resistant fiberglass door that is visually impossible to distinguish from a wood door (the fire inspectors make this mistake every year) - Stairs and decks: if they are not very tall, by all means look at hardscaping them with rock, flagstone or concrete. Not only does it make them extremely resistant to wildfire, but it also, when looking at IBHS regulations, takes them out of the zone 0 equation (not true for CalFire right now btw): you don’t have to surround them with zone 0 5ft zone; instead, you can count zone 0 from the walls. - Garage doors: if new, by all means look at metal and do not consider wood. If old, though, don’t be too hasty to discard your old garage door: you may have other priorities for the money you would spend. For sure, though, make sure to Remember, **this is the opinion of a well-meaning neighbor, not the advice of a specialist.** And it is free, so you know what it is worth 🙂