Fire-resistant building codes may not raise home prices

Homes in wildfire-prone areas nationwide could be built to better withstand blazes without increasing the cost of construction, according to a new report.

The research released Tuesday was sponsored in part by the insurance industry and marks the first attempt to quantify the expenses associated with building residences that meet stringent flame-resistant criteria. Few states have adopted such codes, often citing housing costs, but the new findings suggest fire-plagued communities could curb damage and save lives with minimal effect on home buyers.

“It’s a proven method,” Kelly Pohl, a research and policy analyst at the Montana-based wildfire policy consulting firm Headwaters Economics, who coauthored the report with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. “We now know that it’s also a cost-effective method.”

The findings come days after a sweeping report from scientists for 13 federal agencies, who say that climate change will cause more devastating, costly and deadly fires, and that communities haven’t done enough to prepare. Insurers, safety advocates and disaster policy experts have urged state and local governments to toughen building codes — a move that’s often opposed by home builders over concerns it will increase housing costs, putting them out of reach of more potential buyers.

The new research suggests that at least when it comes to wildfires, those concerns may be overblown.

The report looked at a typical three-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot, singlestory home constructed last year in Park County, Mont., an area at risk for wildfires. The authors compared two ways of constructing that home: One using standard techniques and materials, and the other conforming to the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, set by the nonprofit International Code Council in Washington.

They found that adding a fire-resistant roof, vents and gutters on the home would increase material costs by $6,000, or about 27 percent. Fire-resistant doors and windows would also raise to the expenses by $5,000 more.

But those additional costs would be offset by the use of fiber-cement siding, which is fire-resistant and less than half the price of more commonly used cedar-plank siding. Altogether, the authors found that building the home to comply with the model wildfire code would be 2 percent less expensive than traditional construction.

Stephen Quarles, chief wildfire scientist for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety and the report’s co-author said he hopes the report persuades officials, as well as homeowners, to demand stricter construction practices.

Steve Snezek, executive director of the Montana Building Industry Association, which represents home builders, said his members are constructing houses that are increasingly fire-resistant, even in the absence of codes requiring more stringent techniques.

Still, Snezek said that people in Montana weren’t keen to have the government tell them what to do: “There’s certainly a liveand-let-live culture.”