Pulling Our Weight

2) Brick & Mortar
One ridge over from Sugarloaf Road is Four Mile Canyon, a steep-walled valley where, in 2010, a fire destroyed 169 homes as it swept over 6,000 acres of land. At the time, it was the most destructive fire in Colorado history, causing an estimated $217 million in damage. (It was surpassed by the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs in 2012.)

Instead of cutting losses, many homeowners rebuilt on their plots, giving the canyon’s housing stock a chance at improved design and material use. Larry Sykes, an architect with the Boulder firm Arch11, spearheaded the design of one such fire-ready Four Mile edifice.

“In this house we used stucco, we used weathering steel which rusts naturally—the rust forms a protective coating on the steel,” Sykes told me as we perused photos of the home at Arch11’s Boulder office.

In addition, corrugated metal and a steel staircase rounded out the fire-resistant materials.

“From our standpoint there were a lot of code changes that happened in Boulder County in the mountainous areas that we had dealt with recently on some other projects—siding materials for example, no wood, nothing flammable.”

Is it cost-effective to be mindful of fires? Here I expected to find the catch, the economic glass ceiling impeding large scale fire-conscious building.

“Compared to the general Boulder market, it wasn’t a real huge increase from a materials standpoint,” Larry explained matter-of-factly. Partly, this is due to the commonness of fire-resistant materials: brick, concrete, steel and dry wall (which has a non-combustible core of calcium sulfate that will emit steam when it gets hot, thereby curbing ignition).

Fire-resistant materials have traditionally been non-wood, for obvious reasons. But as more cities around the country (and Colorado in particular) include wildfire mitigation as a condition for building permits, the palate of options is broadening—even into wood.

Shou-sugi-ban is an ancient Japanese practice in which cedar is minimally charred, creating a barrier against further burning and adding a sleek onyx-like sheen to wooden siding. After seeing a resurgence in the past few years in modern design circles, it’s now escaping the niche luxury label and being implemented on other woods like cypress and yellow pine.

The lumber industry, wont to let large sections of the American building market slip away, is also entering the product pool, particularly with a much-hyped tempered wood called Eco Red Shield.

“There are a lot of similarities between Eco Red Shield and the seatbelt in the automobile,” says Pat Bischel, owner of Northern Crossarm Co., the parent company of the only Colorado distributor of Eco Red Shield. “No one would buy a car without a seatbelt.”Bischel’s confidence in the product is well warranted; last year it won gold at the annual Edison awards, which honors innovative products and services. In essence, lumber is treated with a formula (dying it red, naturally) that slows burning, decreases smoke emission and, for added benefit, cuts down on mold.

“You won’t know how effective it is until you’re in the situation,” Bischel concedes. “It will buy you time.”
But Eco Red Shield is still fighting to get recognition by both the builders’ market and municipal zoning requirements, which in many places don’t yet include treated lumber.

“Right now there’s a lot of discussion in Colorado,” says Bischel, optimistically. “I think as new regulations are passed, Eco Red Shield will be included in there as one of the materials.”

The growth of fire-smart materials used in construction is an encouraging sign, but it’s a small part of a larger chain of wildfire mitigation measures. Home design—the conceptual layout, as opposed to what’s holding the place up—matters as much as materials. Roofs with multiple angles form perfect areas for ignitable debris to gather, regardless of whether your shingles are cedar or asphalt. Large attic air intake vents can be expressways for flying embers seeking out your rafters. As we toured the house on Sugarloaf, Notbohm even pointed out a crack in the foundation where fire could enter the insulation, burning the home from within the walls.