For homeowners in the hills around San Jose, Almaden, Evergreen, and out toward Los Gatos, wildfire stopped being an abstract worry after the 2020 SCU Lightning Complex. Now it's showing up on the insurance bill: carriers dropping policies, premiums jumping, and coverage getting harder to find. The good news is that the same upgrades that make your home survive an ember storm are increasingly the ones that keep you insurable, and California now requires insurers to reward them. Here's what actually matters, in the order it matters.
- Most homes don't burn from a wall of flame; they burn from wind-blown embers landing in vents, on roofs, and in the plants next to the house.
- The highest-value hardening measures: a Class A roof, ember-resistant vents, enclosed eaves, and a clear 5-foot zone around the house.
- California's Safer from Wildfires rule makes insurers that price for wildfire risk give credit for these upgrades, and the FAIR Plan offers its own discount.
- A remodel or reroof is the natural, cheapest time to build these in.
Start with the embers, not the flames
The single most useful thing to understand about wildfire and homes: most houses that ignite don't do it because a wall of fire reaches them. They ignite because embers travel a mile or more ahead of the fire, land in a vulnerable spot, and smolder. That reframes the whole project. You're not trying to build a bunker; you're closing off the small places an ember can get in or find something to burn. That's what "home hardening" means, and CAL FIRE's guidance is built around it.
The measures that matter most
- Class A fire-rated roof. The roof is the biggest target for falling embers. Class A materials, asphalt fiberglass composition shingle, concrete or clay tile, and metal, are the standard. If your roof is near end of life, replacing it with Class A is the highest-impact single upgrade.
- Ember-resistant vents. Attic and crawlspace vents are how embers get inside and ignite a home from within. CAL FIRE calls for State Fire Marshal-approved ember-resistant vents, or noncombustible metal mesh sized between 1/16 and 1/8 inch. Plastic vents are a liability. This is a relatively cheap, very high-value fix.
- Enclosed eaves and non-combustible siding. Open eaves trap rising embers; boxing them in removes the trap. Fiber cement, stucco, and other non-combustible siding resist ignition at the wall.
- Dual-pane or tempered windows. Radiant heat can crack single-pane glass and let fire inside. Multi-pane tempered glass holds up far better.
- The 5-foot ember-resistant zone. California's AB 3074 calls for the first five feet around the home in high fire hazard areas to have nothing that ignites from an ember: no combustible plants, no bark mulch, no stacked firewood, no wood fence tied directly to the house. It costs little and does a lot.
The insurance side, which is the part that changed
This is where it gets financially concrete. California's Safer from Wildfires regulation was the first in the country to require insurance discounts for wildfire mitigation. Insurers that vary their pricing based on wildfire risk must also give credit when a homeowner hardens the home and clears defensible space. The California FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort many high-risk Bay Area homeowners now rely on, offers its own hardening discounts as well.
The discount amount depends on the insurer and which measures you complete, and it's not always huge on its own. But combined with the more important benefit, staying insurable at all, it changes the math. Keep documentation and photos of every upgrade so you can claim the credit and prove the work at renewal.
Do it with the remodel or the reroof
Hardening is cheapest when it rides along with work you're already doing. Reroofing? Go Class A. Replacing siding? Choose non-combustible. Doing a whole-home remodel or an addition that opens up the exterior? That's the moment to swap vents, box the eaves, and upgrade windows, while the access is already paid for. Bundling it in beats a standalone hardening project on cost every time.
How we handle it
We'll walk your home, prioritize the measures by impact and cost, and handle the work that needs a licensed contractor, roofing, siding, vents, windows, structural, to current code, with the documentation you'll want for your insurer. The landscaping side of the 5-foot zone you can often do yourself; we'll tell you plainly what's DIY and what isn't. See how we run projects on our process page.