[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's Around the House. We've been talking about getting your house to be more resilient to natural disasters and storms and those kind of things. And what I wanted to talk about here, I wanted to wrap up kind of something I didn't talk about that I meant to mention in the last segment, but we ran out of time, we were talking about decks.

[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: And one thing that you need to be careful with is if you have kind of that, uh, cliffside house or the house that looks down into the canyon or looks down, you know, at a. For instance, is it, you also have to remember to protect the bottom side of the deck when it's built over terrain that goes downwards and away from the house, just because that's more susceptible to wildfire when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know that we've got you covered is around the house.

[00:00:53] Eric Goranson: Welcome to the round the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. [00:01:00] Thanks for joining us today. Wow. It is the weekend before Thanksgiving. And there is so much going on out there. So today I thought we'd talk about two different important things.

[00:01:09] Eric Goranson: Now that we're kind of getting into storm season for us in the north and as well as people out there are still in hurricane season, I thought, let's talk today about building more resilient homes that can survive storm damage. And this isn't just for people out there building a home. Maybe you're doing a remodel.

[00:01:27] Eric Goranson: Maybe you're taking on a new project. These are all things to think about. When you're working on these projects, so I thought we'd talk about it in different areas today and have a great discussion about it and Hey, real quick, before we get going on this, if you want to find out more about us, or even contact us, head over to around the house online.

[00:01:47] Eric Goranson: com and you can find all the stuff from the TV show there to the radio show podcast, all the stuff that you're hearing today, as well as a lot more information over there. Well, today, let's start talking about kind of [00:02:00] the exterior here, the home about building something more resilient, and this was something that I really started having more conversations a number of years ago, especially when I was down in Florida doing building seminars down there that I went, you know, this is such a big deal.

[00:02:15] Eric Goranson: And as far as it goes for, you know, things like, you know, states and what they're doing down there, Florida's doing a heck of a job as far as it goes. With hurricanes and stuff and codes. And, you know, you're seeing that out of the Gulf Coast states is you're really starting to see those things change.

[00:02:32] Eric Goranson: And I think that's really cool in a way that, uh, you know, if you can build the house correctly to begin with, that can resist and be resilient to those, you know, environmental problems that we have, you know, if you could have a house that can hold up to 120 mile an hour wind, Versus whatever it was that building code said it was it's not a horrible idea because if your house can take it Then you don't have to file that insurance claim later And the cool thing is is you don't have the [00:03:00] damage from that you can just keep on going because well the house did great So that's where these new building construction techniques can be pretty handy And I kind of like how some of these are going and I think today let's talk about some things that can really be done around your house as you're doing remodeling If you're building a house, it's a whole other story, but there's so many great things that can be done here to really get things buttoned up.

[00:03:23] Eric Goranson: So you have a, you know, a better situation to work with. You know, let's talk roofs for a second. You know, if you've got a house that's 50 years old, maybe it doesn't have the hurricane ties. Whether it's the Simpson or my tech or whatever brand bracket they have holding your roof system down to the walls, you know, older homes don't have that.

[00:03:44] Eric Goranson: So if you're doing some interior renovation work where you've got drywall down and maybe you're fixing a leak, maybe you're doing something like that. It's always good to add those hangers in while you have things open because the last thing you want to do is to be one of those shows on TV where you [00:04:00] see the roof blown off a house.

[00:04:02] Eric Goranson: Usually that's because those did not have the right fasteners holding things together. So just some simple metal brackets can do a lot to hold that trusses or the roof system on there. Now, when we're talking roofing, there's a couple of things that I like to see out there. For instance, you know, uh, I'm a big fan of, uh, Huber's zip system.

[00:04:22] Eric Goranson: And there's a lot of different ways to keep things waterproof, but if you're doing a roof, you know, and you're going to put OSB up there, why don't you think about putting something that's already got a waterproof membrane that's already on it and where this can make a difference is if you're in an area that gets high winds.

[00:04:39] Eric Goranson: That can get wind damage. What that can do is that let's say you have a wind that comes in that is rated beyond what your roofing system is, and it found the weak point of blue shingles off. Well, having something down there that's impregnated into the wood that's already waterproof means that if the rains come along with it, you're not going to see the [00:05:00] water damage behind it that you would have had if it was just regular plywood or O.

[00:05:04] Eric Goranson: S. P. Extremely. So those are things that are really good by starting out with something that's built into the roof system. That's already waterproof and then if you put the right roofing system on top of it, you're looking really good. Now, if you look at roofing out there, um, there's a lot of different great roofs out there.

[00:05:19] Eric Goranson: I'm not a specific one, You know, um, fan of that. I'm going to endorse here of either one, but a lot of the companies out there and GAF is one is an example that has some warranties that are really good for wind damage. And I think that's really cool. Like, for instance, they have their wind proven limited wind warranty.

[00:05:41] Eric Goranson: And what that says is the wind warranty with no max wind speed limitation. You have to install the GAF shingles with layer lock technology plus four required GAF accessory products. Of course it has limitations on it here, but if we go down and look into the little finer details of this without getting into the weeds, it [00:06:00] says a 15 year wind proven limited wind warranty on timber lined AS2 shingles requires the use of GAF starter strips, roof deck protection, ridge cap shingles, and leak barrier or attic ventilation.

[00:06:11] Eric Goranson: And of course you have to see their limited warranty, all that other stuff. But really, if you get 120 mile an hour wind coming in, they're saying for 15 years, if it was installed correctly, they're going to cover it and that's a heck of a deal right there. And you know, there's a lot of different things out there.

[00:06:29] Eric Goranson: If you have hail in your area, um, they have really good. Shingles that are made for class four impact resistance now. And so for instance, the Timberline AS2, uh, SPS modified, uh, IR shingles have the Timberline, but they've also got the UL 2218 class four impact resistance. So a lot of different companies have this, but really what you're talking about here is putting up products that are going to withstand the worst [00:07:00] case scenario in your area.

[00:07:02] Eric Goranson: So really putting on. You know, to making sure that the things were installed correctly, and that's why when I see a roof being installed, I really want you to find somebody that's good. I've seen so many bad roofers out there, and it's just a handful of bad roofers that make the rest of the roofers look bad, but there's a handful of bad ones.

[00:07:20] Eric Goranson: I want to make sure that when you go. Find a roofer that you go on to that brand of roofing website. So whether or not it's going to be certainty or GAF or Owens Corning or Pabco or whatever the brand is out there, jump onto their website and make sure that your contractor that you're hiring is certified through them on the installation techniques.

[00:07:42] Eric Goranson: And that's a big one right there. And then make sure and have that discussion with the installer and maybe even a product rep in your area about what is the right material to put up there. And how is it going to hold up to your extreme weather conditions? You know, for instance, here in the Pacific Northwest, we have [00:08:00] wind, we have fire, not as much hail, but we do have a lot of other things out there from moss to mold to everything else.

[00:08:10] Eric Goranson: It could go on, but really the wind and the fire are our big two ones right here and ice is the other one, but really those are the two ones that can damage your house. So we want to make sure that we have those covered if you were in Florida, I'd be looking at, you know, hurricanes. If you were in, in, uh, California, I'd be talking wildfire and wind and, you know, so depending on where you're at in the country and wind, of course, in hurricane up on the east coast and some wildfire, you are not exempt to that.

[00:08:41] Eric Goranson: So really making sure that you've got, you know, when it comes to wildfire, making sure that you've got the right spark proof vents in there, they make vents, uh, for your attic space, uh, for your soffits and stuff that are designed to keep sparks down. So if you have a wildfire and those sparks are blown on the [00:09:00] wind, that you can keep those out of the attic space or things like that.

[00:09:04] Eric Goranson: And that's always good. If you've got attic. Ventilation up there having a rock wall, for instance, in there that is not flammable. So if a spark lanes in the insulation that you're going to be better off. And so that's always good to have things that are going to be 1 pretty fireproof, you know, and there and there's nothing perfect to this.

[00:09:24] Eric Goranson: I mean, if you get a, uh. Category five. Hurricane in, you could definitely have damage if you get, you know, a blow torch of a fire you could have damage. So we'll keep can talk, talking about this 'cause there are so many things we can do on other parts of the house that we'll talk about After round The house returns

[00:09:50] Eric Goranson: so hot.

[00:09:55] Eric Goranson: So[00:10:00]

[00:10:13] Eric Goranson: welcome back to the Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home. through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. Well, we've been talking about building resilience and really creating that home. That is more resilient to storm damage, whether it's a firestorm or windstorm, a snowstorm, whatever.

[00:10:33] Eric Goranson: What can you do as you build it to make it more resilient to what's going on? And uh, not going to get here and debate, you know, the jump headfirst into the climate change thing here, but every year our climate is a little bit different, like it or not. And the thing here is, is that, you know, storms are randomly coming through, we'll have a, you know, weather one year that's [00:11:00] crazy.

[00:11:00] Eric Goranson: The next year we don't. And so how are you prepared? Because when storms, firestorms, all those things happen in nature automatically, whether we like it or not, since we can't change it, how do we make something that's going to, uh, well, um, Give us the best bang for the buck because nobody likes to have their house damaged.

[00:11:18] Eric Goranson: Nobody likes to have to deal with insurance companies and all those things. How do you deal with that kind of stuff? So in this segment, I wanted to talk about decking. You know, you think about it in the event of a wildfire, you know, that Jack is just such a big surface. That's easy to get, you know, um, all the embers or flames or anything else.

[00:11:38] Eric Goranson: It's just a big piece of flammable material that you have to be careful of. And, you know, the other thing is, is that, you know, railings coming off in a windstorm, something like that can bust through the windows. There's glass there's there. There's a lot of things typically near a deck. So wildfire though is the biggest one out [00:12:00] there and you know, it's interesting if you deal with people in California, you will need to have You know decks that are rated for fire and that's really kind of what this conversation is about in this segment today is What can you do to make it so it's you know more resilient to that especially for us out on the west coast but even on the east coast if you had a house that caught fire next door during a windstorm and This now becomes something that is very, um, important for you.

[00:12:30] Eric Goranson: And if you can build it that way to begin with, it's just a quiet added benefit. So that's important. So there's a new code that's been out there. Um, That's really designed to reduce the hazard to life and property from fire and wildland settings, which is the International Code Council's International Wildland Urban Interface Code, which is the IWUIC.

[00:12:55] Eric Goranson: We're not getting into the weeds on this because that's really boring radio and podcast, but based [00:13:00] on an area's terrain, fuel type, like it's a tree, grass, that kind of stuff, um, number of days that critical fire weather occur annual, um, it's like fuel abundance. It's really kind of works with the fire hazard severity classifications of like, moderate, high and extreme.

[00:13:18] Eric Goranson: And this is where your local, you know, jurisdictions basically use it to map their particular zones of wildfire. And so really is what they're talking about is any kind of a deck. Or anything else that's coming out of the home. So this is really important stuff. So there's really three main classes out there.

[00:13:42] Eric Goranson: Class one is the most resistant, class two and class three, which is least resistant. And so, um, basically class one and class two are considered some kind of a fire resistant deck. We're three is just everything else out there. And so, um, if you deal with the [00:14:00] California state fire marshal office, they developed its own, their own requirements for wildfire zones.

[00:14:06] Eric Goranson: Um, you know, for all you guys in California that listen to here on the podcast or the radio, that would be section R three 27. 19 of California residential code, but you have this new code that's out there and I'm not going to get too far in the weeds on that, but it's interesting stuff. So when you're building a deck.

[00:14:28] Eric Goranson: What it comes down to is the deck board flame spread. That's really what it's talking about. And so they have these different flame spread indexes. Where, you know, if you had a, uh, piece of cement, for instance, that would have a value of zero. But, um, if you had a piece of wood, like oak or something like that, it would be a value of a hundred to give you an idea.

[00:14:53] Eric Goranson: So they have these different flame spread ratings. Where, you know, for instance, um, [00:15:00] you know, you could go, they, how they, let's, let's break this down so it's easy to consume, cause some of this stuff gets really tough to go. If you, they, they start out with a brand, basically, where they, Light a fire or get it hot on the deck boards and they see how much it spreads.

[00:15:16] Eric Goranson: And so it's really interesting how they do this, uh, in California. So if you have a class C decking, for instance, in California, the fire just can burn everywhere. But a class B fire rated, you'll see a spot fire, but it's not going to spread. And so that's where these things go. So, when you see a wood deck, that is basically always going to be a Class 3 deck because of the wood.

[00:15:44] Eric Goranson: Now, if you want to do some things to upgrade that, use, you know, some, basically what you can do is do some flashings and stuff to keep those embers from getting pushed up against the house and the siding. So, some flashing there. Making sure [00:16:00] there's not little pockets for places to catch, but really what people are doing is to get a class one or class two deck.

[00:16:06] Eric Goranson: They're either going to use metal. They're either going to use one of the composites, um, or they're going to use some of the new stuff, which is really, uh, the, the way to do it is to build a fireproof deck, and that is really going to go with an exterior surface where you're going to use metal framing.

[00:16:25] Eric Goranson: You're going to put down and build a system where you can put tile. Or other non combustible type decking down. And so really what you're doing is you're building an outdoor surface there. So many times what you'll see is you'll put in a slope deck on top of the metal. You'll have your membrane system.

[00:16:44] Eric Goranson: You'll have the mortar. You'll have the tile. And then, of course, you're going to have. Um, a non combustible sighting out there as well with all the flashings and the flashings will be metal. And so really, that's what you're seeing a lot of is with the new metal deck systems and then tile out [00:17:00] there.

[00:17:00] Eric Goranson: That's how you create kind of the ultimate fire resistant deck. And those are really good these days. They have got some really good systems for many different areas. That work out really well. Now, part of this is also going to be vegetation control. That's part of this, because if you have a bunch of dry bushes, or if you have, um, you know, wood bark or something, that's right up against that up against the wood.

[00:17:23] Eric Goranson: You know, if you've got, let's say, wood posts that are holding up a metal surface up top, those wood posts now are the part that could be the big fire area. So this is where you really want to pay attention to making sure that your landscaping, which we're going to talk about in the next segment, is much more resilient and that you don't have those issues.

[00:17:43] Eric Goranson: And so, you know, it's that firewood pile for your outdoor fire pit that's stacked up against the deck that can now be the issue. And so you see what I mean? It's the, it's the grasses or the, or the flowers or that kind of stuff. Or maybe you've got some dry bushes there or bamboo [00:18:00] that is dry. These are all things that you really have to pay attention to.

[00:18:04] Eric Goranson: And, um, you know, overhangs and things like that, uh, are other areas that if you have a fire down below. That fire can get up into the attic pretty easily. So we'll talk about that. And we come up into the next segment about what you can do landscaping wise to help yourself in the event of emergency or a storm situation.

[00:18:21] Eric Goranson: We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.[00:19:00]

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show. This is where we get the most out of your home through information and education. We've been talking about getting your house to be more resilient to natural disasters and storms and those kinds of things. And what I wanted to talk about here, I wanted to wrap up kind of something I didn't talk about that I meant to mention in the last segment, but we ran out of time.

[00:19:30] Eric Goranson: We were talking about decks. And 1 thing that you need to be careful with is. If you have kind of that, uh, cliffside house, or the house that looks down into the canyon. Or looks down, you know, in a view, for instance, is that you also have to remember to protect the bottom side of the deck when it's built over terrain that goes downwards and away from the house, just because that's more susceptible to wildfire and.

[00:19:57] Eric Goranson: There's also new codes out there that are [00:20:00] requiring, mandating fire protection in these cases. So, the California Building Code does not, but there's plenty of local jurisdictions that do require it across the country. So, something to think about. So, you really have to encapsulate or enclose the bottom side of this deck with something that is fire resistant.

[00:20:24] Eric Goranson: And so, what you can do is, um, You know, if the slope descends away greater than 10 percent is usually on on average, that's kind of where the rules lie. So, the walls must extend to within 6 inches of the ground, and they can be built a bunch of different ways. So, you can build them out of brick, stone, uh, you know, or even concrete block, but those do require footings.

[00:20:50] Eric Goranson: If you do stud walls, which you can do that, they need to have a 1 hour fire resistant. Assembly on the exterior and, [00:21:00] for example, you could go middle studs with a type X gypsum fire rated gypsum sheathing and then cover that with fiber some inciting or cement stucco. And anyway, these are what you can do to meet that.

[00:21:14] Eric Goranson: But. The other way to do it is you can build more of a waterproof deck, pour a concrete slab underneath it, and then put your fire resistant enclosure walls on the slab. And so that way you don't have to worry about the drainage issue. So that's where you have to watch out with because you do have to allow for drainage.

[00:21:31] Eric Goranson: So when you build that wall, for instance, you have to make sure that you have an area there that lets that water get away. So, um, and when you got to think about ventilation as well. So you do need to ventilate the space if you have walls and it's enclosed. So you can use wall vents, uh, that, you know, like we talked about earlier that keep the embers out.

[00:21:52] Eric Goranson: Um, so there's a lot of different ones with that, but these are things to really think about when it comes to that. Now, when it comes to [00:22:00] landscaping, these are things that you should really think about out there. And, you know, in the Pacific Northwest, we have a real problem here with landscaping, and that is that weather.

[00:22:10] Eric Goranson: When we're sitting here talking about weather in the summer times here, many homes in like Seattle and Portland and all up and down the Western half of the West coast states. There's many homes out there that they just don't water in the summer time. And so the lawns go dormant and they go yellow or white.

[00:22:30] Eric Goranson: And the problem is now that you've got something like that, you could have a backyard or a front yard or both that are just. Ready to burn and this can be a really big problem when it comes to landscaping. And so many times, um, you know, and we do use a lot and including in my house, I have a lot of areas that are flower beds that are covered with wood chips or, um, you know, any that could be, you know, anything from cedar [00:23:00] chips to, uh, any kind of a bark mulch.

[00:23:03] Eric Goranson: But you think about it, this is just kindling ready to go and if it's not wet at the time, you now have something that is very easily combustible and embers landing and it can be a big problem. Even a cigarette as we've seen in many homes that can land in that landscaping. You've got a problem. So these are things that we should all think about what can be done.

[00:23:24] Eric Goranson: So maybe up against the house instead of using wood chips, you could be better off using, um, you know, like a rock or crushed rock or decorative rock. Yeah. Those are things that can be done. You know, if you've got a sprinkler system and you're keeping that stuff wet, it's, it's one thing and that it doesn't burn when it's wet, but if you had a heavy fire, that stuff will dry out and then catch fires.

[00:23:45] Eric Goranson: So really think about that. And then making sure that when you plant things, you have nothing up against the house. I want to see bushes and shrubs a few feet away because those can dry out and catch on fire. And really keeping things [00:24:00] away from the structure that can burn or keep, you know, we've all seen our provide a hedges, get a spark and catch on fire just because of the tendency of those to have such.

[00:24:11] Eric Goranson: Um, a lot of dead material that ends up falling out and landing in underneath the covers there, you know, it can land at the root base and all of a sudden you've got a fire. So when those are up against the building, I've seen those up against hedges, uh, up against fences that really love to burn. So thinking about what you've got there.

[00:24:30] Eric Goranson: You know, fire rated fence assemblies. Um, you know, um, I've got 1 around my house on the front. That really makes a lot of sense that, um, isn't going to burn. Is it going to stop a fire? No, but embers are not going to go through it and it will reflect some of that heat. So it does help. In that, you know, it's not a foolproof method, but if I did have some kind of a fire, it would help in that situation.

[00:24:57] Eric Goranson: So these are all things that we should be thinking about when it comes to [00:25:00] landscaping. And again, your tree selection is good too. If you've got a high canopy tree and the tree is healthy and, uh, you've kept those trees trimmed, you know, anytime that you've got, uh, fir or any one of the different pine trees, Making sure that you've got the combustible things off around them and out of them and that they're trimmed up and in a good health.

[00:25:24] Eric Goranson: Those are things that can really make a difference. Now, fires are not the only thing. So, you know, when you're dealing with wind storms, large trees that have not been taken care of can be troublesome as well. And a lot of times, you know, sprinkler systems can be to blame with that, because what happens is if you've got.

[00:25:41] Eric Goranson: Big trees and you've got lawn there and your sprinkler system goes on for 10 or 15 minutes. Those roots can really start to stay towards the top of the surface, which means they don't have a lot of grant land to grab ahold of. So you want to make sure that you're watering deep, like with root quencher those type of systems to make sure that you're getting [00:26:00] water down into the ground.

[00:26:02] Eric Goranson: So the roots can chase it because the better hold that they have, the better off they are and then making sure that your trees are in good shape. If they're rotten, are you having somebody come out every few years? And take a look at those trees to make sure that they don't have rot or something inside that can really cause a problem as far as them breaking off or, um, you know, for instance, I've got trees around my house that are anywhere from 250 to 350 years old, which means they have taken on 250 to 350 years of storms.

[00:26:37] Eric Goranson: But if you haven't maintained them, or if you haven't been watching for root rot or things like that. Or, um, other places of rot. That's where the weak points of these trees are. And at some point you get to a point where they're big enough that the body can't hold up to a windstorm. So making sure that you've got these things cared for by a professional is [00:27:00] really important.

[00:27:00] Eric Goranson: So take the time, have your tree company come out, take a look at your trees, make sure that they have been inspected, that they've been looked at. If you see signs of root rot, like conks growing out of the side. Of those more evergreen trees, those are things that I want you to be mindful of because the last thing I want to see you do is have a tree go karate chop across your house and cause some other issues.

[00:27:23] Eric Goranson: So, making sure that that landscaping. Is really dialed in can be huge for you. So a little bit of time goes a long ways and sometimes just keeping that lawn water and healthy could be something that does a great job because if it's green, you have a little bit less chance of that burning and being, uh, you know, being an issue down the road.

[00:27:44] Eric Goranson: So, these are things that I really want you to be, you know, mindful of, whether it's wind, whether it's a hurricane, whether it's, you know, heavy rains, these are all things to keep in mind. When you're dealing with landscaping and then more importantly, making sure that [00:28:00] you've got that grading on the outside of the house dialed in where you don't have a flood situation, or that you've got a little bit of space to let that water drain away.

[00:28:10] Eric Goranson: You know, if your house is in a location where that easily floods. You know, is there ways to build berms and raised flower beds and things that can help divert water away and still follow local building code? Because if you can do some landscaping to help make it more resilient, you're going to be much better off.

[00:28:28] Eric Goranson: Around the House will be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]

[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us. Well, today we've been talking about in this hour, building more resilient homes. And these are things that can be little tiny things when you're doing construction.

[00:29:19] Eric Goranson: It doesn't have to be this huge remodel in great example. And I'm going to be doing this on my house here. I've got some crawl space work to be done in my house and I am in an earthquake zone. And anytime that you're in an earthquake zone and you have an older house, you know, built before the eighties, for instance, then it's questionable how your house.

[00:29:39] Eric Goranson: He's fastened to the foundation. Now, when you get back into the seventies and before that, um, they weren't usually requiring engineering to be done. And since there was no engineering to be done, there might not be mechanical fasteners that hold that. So plate, which is the bottom part of the wall to the foundation.

[00:29:58] Eric Goranson: Many times what you [00:30:00] would see is somebody would take a framing nail and jam it into the concrete and nail that down into soft concrete, but there was not a lot of bolts holding things together. What that means is you've got this heavy house that was just meant to stay there, but when the earth is moving below it, or you get a tornado or you get something like that.

[00:30:20] Eric Goranson: Now you've got wind loads or seismic loads that are exceeding the weight of the house, which means that that house can slide or lift off the foundation, depending what's going on. And so there are a lot of metal brackets out there that can be used. That would then bolts structurally that to the foundation.

[00:30:40] Eric Goranson: So what they do is they have a clip that's kind of, uh, you know, like an 8 or a 10 inch piece of metal that now clamps on where it will screw into that. So plate and then you use concrete anchors to drill into the concrete and fasten that in. And so that means you've now got that tied together. And [00:31:00] although it's not perfect, now you have something that is much more resilient to having an earthquake or if you had a tornado, even a hurricane, you know, I think we've all seen those houses that have been blown off their foundation and that perfectly beautiful house is laying in the middle of the street that was built in the twenties.

[00:31:18] Eric Goranson: And a lot of that's because guess what? They just didn't have it bolted down. And so those houses there probably could have been saved. If they would have just had, you know, 1, 500 with the brackets installed on it, and you wouldn't have a 250, 000 house sitting out in the middle of the street. And so a lot of these things can be done while you're remodeling.

[00:31:38] Eric Goranson: Like, I've got some crawl space work to be done, I'm going to do it this winter when, when, when it's not hot, and uh, It'll be nice to be doing some projects there instead of outside in the snow or the rain, but really these are things that work really well. So make sure that you've got that kind of back there, um, you know, tied in.

[00:31:59] Eric Goranson: So make [00:32:00] sure you get those things tied in. But here's the thing, when you're doing an earthquake retrofit in, for instance, a basement or a crawl space, It's not just attaching that there. What you need to do is you need to make sure and attach not only the foundation to the sidewall. I need to make sure that you have any of the beams that are there attached to the post going down.

[00:32:24] Eric Goranson: So everything that is attached to the ground needs to have metal bracketry up there. So if you've got a mean beam going down the middle with like a post or two going into the basement, those need to be bracketed to the ground. Bracketed to the beam, the post to the beam, the beam to the floor joist, the floor joist up.

[00:32:42] Eric Goranson: Just as is it you've got that, that, uh, sill plate, you've got the sill plate now attached to the... You know, which is attached to the concrete because that's what's laying there. I want to make sure that you've got joist hangers and stuff and everything is wrapped in. So you've got everything tied together.

[00:32:58] Eric Goranson: So all of those framing [00:33:00] pieces need to be tied together in one system. So making sure you got that is important and make sure when in doubt, hire an engineer to come up and do some drawings for you. And they'll tell you exactly what brackets where they should be located. And generally speaking, you like to put those brackets about four feet apart when you're attaching that to the foundation.

[00:33:20] Eric Goranson: So that way you've got some really good stuff. Check with an engineer, uh, when in doubt, structural engineer can drop a plan for you and, uh, come up with a good way of doing that. Now. The other thing that I want you to make sure that you've got is a few battery backup things. If you've got traditionally a sump pump that has to run in the basement or crawl space, do you have a battery backup for it?

[00:33:40] Eric Goranson: Or at least a backup generator, which we'll talk about next hour. But how prepared are you in the event? Of power outage, are you depending on that some pump to run 24 7 if you're in a hurricane, or is that basement going to be flooded? So making sure that you have the right backups, you know, for instance, 1 week point [00:34:00] for people is that they have the, you know, okay, my power is going to go out.

[00:34:03] Eric Goranson: I've got to get my garage door open so I can get my generator outside to plug it in and turn it on to power things. Well, if you don't have a battery backup. On that garage door opener, you know, have to go out there and manually lift that garage door. So maybe the next time you replace that garage door opener, you get one with a battery backup so that you can just hit the button and open it versus have to wait and get out there with a flashlight, find the red handle, pull the door open and do it that way.

[00:34:34] Eric Goranson: So little things like that can make a really big difference. You know, uh, we're going to have an interview coming up here later. Uh, in a week or two that we'll be talking with, uh, Comcast Xfinity about their storm ready wifi. And so with Xfinity, they just came out with a new service, for instance. That when the, when the wifi goes down or your power goes out, that it switches your home internet over to, um, you know, a 5g [00:35:00] network like you would see with AT& T or Verizon or T Mobile.

[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: And so it's got a battery backup and it just converts it over automatically. So you still have wifi. Cause what's happened in the past at my house that, um, after the battery backups tend to, to stop. When you lose power for an extended period of time, then you tend to lose that backup and as soon as you lose wifi, then things start to go a little bit sideways, you know, your, maybe your automatic systems aren't working correctly.

[00:35:29] Eric Goranson: Your, um, it can cause problems with your heating and cooling. And depending on how smart your home can be, those can cause issues. Now, one thing that you do have to keep in mind though, is that, you know, especially in my neighborhood where we don't have a lot of towers, that what can happen is, is when the, um, wifi goes down, everybody goes over to their phones and, uh, that system can be overloaded.

[00:35:53] Eric Goranson: So, um, that can really slow down that connection. And, uh, we have that happen here a [00:36:00] lot. And that's 1 of those things that I look at and go, okay, make sure that that works. But, uh, in the event of a natural disaster, usually the 1st thing to go down that gets overwhelmed is that cell phone network, because most places cannot contain that kind of traffic.

[00:36:18] Eric Goranson: And so either means that you're not going to get text out. You'll go to send a text. It'll try sending. It won't go. It's kind of like when you go to a football game, concert, rock show, whatever. And everybody's trying to upload pictures at the same time. Things get really slow, really quick. The same thing happens when you're doing that.

[00:36:35] Eric Goranson: And, uh, you know, the other thing let's talk about here real quick, making sure that you're resilient as well. Do you have the Oh, Two weeks of food supply. Do you have two weeks of water? Do you have all your medications? Do you have the dog food, the cat food, all that stuff? Do you have enough to make it through a couple weeks in your house?

[00:36:53] Eric Goranson: Please make sure that you've got enough water, enough food, enough provisions, enough life [00:37:00] sustaining stuff. For a couple weeks, because really, in the event of a natural disaster, we see this across the country, it's really easy to take a week for them to get stuff into your area, especially if it's been a big one with bridges down with things flooded.

[00:37:18] Eric Goranson: You know, we've definitely seen a week they say plan for two weeks. It takes a week for them to get services to you in many cases. So make sure that you've got that all dialed in and you'll be ready to go for the next one. Now, if you're replacing windows, it might be something to think about if you were on the East coast or you're in an area where, where you get high winds and things like that, whether it's a hurricane or Santa Ana winds or things like that, you know, they do make those impact resistant windows.

[00:37:47] Eric Goranson: So it's something to think about. That as you're replacing windows, it does cost you more, but it might not be a bad idea to change over to that in certain areas, especially if you've got like a big picture window or [00:38:00] something like that, replacing that stuff and then putting in garage doors that are stronger and things like that can really make a difference when it comes to your house.

[00:38:10] Eric Goranson: So if you noticed when there's hurricanes or tornadoes with winds. Once the air gets inside the house, it tends to over pressurize it and cause a lot more issues. So if you can keep that wind from getting inside with a stronger garage door. With storm shutters, you can put on the outside. These are things that can make it much more resilient and the same thing goes for, um, if you get into fire weather, you know, do you have, there are systems out there, for instance, that you can put around the outside of your house that are sprinkler systems that will put up a wall of mist in a wall of water to keep yourself safe with that.

[00:38:51] Eric Goranson: So if you have That fire area where you're like, wow, I am in a dangerous fire zone. There are systems that you can install out there [00:39:00] that will turn on that takes pumps and you need to have water storage and they're pretty big, but you can have it where they put up a curtain of water and that's going to really reduce the chance of wildfire.

[00:39:11] Eric Goranson: So there's a lot of systems out there. Just start to do the research to see what makes sense for you and your budget. All right, everybody That's the end of segment four. We've got more when around the house returns for our number two. We'll see you soon