When it comes to dangers to your home and family, the chance of a fire breaking out is one of the foremost threats that a homeowner can face. Of course, that threat can be significantly lowered via fire preparation in the form of well-maintained fire alarms and the presence of fire extinguishers in the home, as well as knowledge on how to handle specific fires.
However, the thought of preventing the fires altogether is also worth looking into. One way to help prevent fires in your home is to build using fire resistant materials. In the words below, you will be able to take a closer look at five of the best fire resistant building materials that exist today.
1. Bricks
A sturdy and time-tested building material, bricks are naturally quite fire resistant. They also look great and give your home a very cozy feel at the end of the day. However, a brick wall is not entirely fireproof, as the building of a brick wall relies on materials that are not incredibly fire resistant. Even so, a brick wall will still be able to stand up to fire better than many other materials.
2. Fire Resistant Glass
There’s glass, which is good enough for a window, sure, but there is also fire-resistant glass. Fire resistant glass is both good enough for a window and it is also a good weapon against a sudden fire outbreak that may happen at any moment.
If that happens, the window may break, allowing any flames to spread even more quickly, thus lowering the chance of killing the fire before serious danger arises. This building material is much safer and may just save your life one day.
3. Concrete
Typically found in buildings more than homes, concrete is still an incredible building material for preventing fires. It is a non-combustible material that is usually used to protect and support steel beams in a building, but it is among the best heat resistant materials you can really use. Using concrete as a roofing material is also a pretty popular idea, as it can stop a fire in it’s tracks pretty effortlessly.
4. Plaster
Plaster, or stucco, is a material that you will most likely find in a home. A reasonably cheap material, plaster can both help make a home safer, as well as more beautiful. Simply apply plaster to any building material around your home to give it a new, more pleasing look, as well as an extra boost of fire resistance. Of course, plaster doesn’t make anything fireproof, however, as wonderful as that would be.
5. Drywall
Drywall, or “gypsum”, is another very commonly used building material that you can find in most homes. When it is manufactured, it is chemically treated to be quite fire resistant, which makes it an affordable, easy to install, and reliable building material that also looks great within a home.
Something of a gold standard when it comes to many modern residential buildings, when paired with plaster, gypsum can be a wonderful building material to safely live with. Although, it isn’t quite as fire resistant as materials such as brick or concrete, it is still well worth the investment if you ever decide to build your very own home.