Firescaping: Keep Your Property Safe

Firescaping means landscaping with fire-safety in mind. Wildfire season makes it absolutely necessary to take the proper precautions with your landscape whether itā€™s what plants you grow, the layout of the property, and the materials to avoid. Your real estate agent can help you find homes for sale in Rutherford CA that have proper firescaping. Consider these steps when planning out your property:

Create a defensible space. When looking at homes for sale in Rutherford CA, your real estate agent should guide you to homes with 2 zones of defense. This means creating 2 zones that will act as defense against fires. Zone 1 is the homeā€™s defense zone. Itā€™s a 30 foot area surrounding the home that is clear of dead or dry vegetation. Branches should be at least 10 feet from your chimney and other trees in this zone. This will be a crucial zone to for protecting your home. Zone 2 is a reduced fuel zone and is 30-100 feet from the house or property line. Grasses here should be cut or mowed to a max of 4 in. Shrubs should be apart from each other ā€“ the distance between them should be about 2-6 times the shrubā€™s height. Zone 2 is where you can keep you wood piles (not zone 1). Tree branches less than 6 feet from the ground should be removed and any shrubs growing under a tree should have about 3 times the shrubs height of clearance between the lowest tree branch and shrub. Itā€™s details like these that you should keep an eye out for when looking at home for sale in Rutherford CA or your real estate agent can help you make remodeling plans post purchase.

Use nonflammable hardscape materials. Fire-safe zones adjacent to your home should use these materials. That way your belongings will have the best chance of surviving in case of an emergency. This includes gravel, concrete, stone, steel, granite, and more. Use these materials in homes for sale in Rutherford CA as walkways, patios, retaining walls, driveways and planter edging. Ask you real estate agent to show you homes with these materials.

Slow down a fire in its path. A great goal to have in the beginning and ongoing process of landscaping is to plant in a way that prevents or slows fire spread. Think about breaking up a large planting area with fire-resisting plants and noncombustible materials. Avoid plant overcrowding and plant in clusters rather than one long continuous connected chain of plants. Boulders, rocks, gravel in pathways can break fire paths. Deciduous trees contain more moisture and ignite slower than evergreens. Water features, ponds, pools can also help break fire spread. Find homes for sale in Rutherford CA that follow these precautions and see how a real estate agent can help.

These are just a few of the many ways that you can protect your property. Keep an eye out for these approaches and understand how our real estate agents can help you find homes for sale in Rutherford CA that follow firescaping guidelines.

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