As we see an increase in destructive wildfires up and down California a Las Vegas company has come up with an idea to try and make your home a little more resistant to fire damage. ABC's Alex Cheney has more on a 'steely' design!
Wildfire season in California burns thousands of acres and hundreds of homes a year but what if that could be a thing of the past? A Las Vegas company building homes out of steel says it could be.
"Well I think when it comes to building a home especially anywhere where there's potential fire, you know building out of wood and combustible materials is suicide in my opinion," said Scott Acton, CEO of Forte Specialty Contractors.
Forte Specialty contractors specialize in building homes out of fire-resistant steel instead of highly combustible wood, improving the chance that your home won't burn down
"Doing a noncombustible metal framing I think that your chances of survival at least for your home go way up."
But how much more would a steel home cost than a wooden one? Acton said the same or even less with all fees included.
"There's a lot of studies that are done that show virtually no difference in cost. Risk insurance is less your homeowner's insurance is less, there are so many other factors that go into the process."
Forte is building steel homes and apartment complexes in Las Vegas and on both coasts. They believe their fire-resistant steel structures are the way of the future.
"We're able to print out these homes in our studio where we do modular wall systems where the framing time is faster the building time is virtually cut in half, the chances of it burning down during construction are almost zero, there's a whole laundry list of benefits to it."
