When plastic gutters drop fire onto your lawn.

Photo by Zachary Keimig on Unsplash

Gutters: we probably have all seen them, and we all probably rarely clean them (which we should).

Especially if you live in a high risk fire area, you’ve probably been told to pay a lot of attention to your gutters, and for good reason.

Gutters are meant to divert rainwater from your home, which means everything that’s on the roof when it rains usually comes down with it. Especially if your roof is sloped, really flammable vegetation falls into your gutters.

That’s why we always recommend you get gutter guards, AND clean your gutters. It’s not fun, but neither is losing your house. But, something you may not think about is the actual material of your gutters.

Similar to your house siding and decking, whether your gutter is plastic or metal is actually really important.Defensible space is similar to the Swiss Cheese concept of safety.

The idea is that more accidents or bad things can happen when there’s too many ‘holes’ or coincidences that line up to cause the perfect storm.

Gutters and the first 5 feet of your house are really where you want to focus the majority of your efforts, especially if you have a limited budget and are trying to maximize your safety with the fewest tasks.

If you have plastic gutters filled with flammable vegetation, even if you have an ignition resistant roof (like metal), the plastic / vinyl can melt from the heat and fall to the ground, potentially catching on balconies, decks, and more. And that’s really all it takes to lose your home.

So, check (and clean) your gutters, and do your best to change them to a non-combustible material. Plastic is only the cheaper option if it doesn’t burn down your house.

Reading articles about preparing your home for wildfire can be time consuming. So, if you’re looking for an easy way to know what’s important and how much it would cost to protect your home from fire, you can go to assessment.faura.us to get your risk score.

We won’t tell Smokey the bear what you grade you get, we promise.