How to Finance Your Resilient Rebuild

Building to the WPH standards requires a greater upfront investment than rebuilding to existing codes and retrofitting later, but it is also easiest to achieve when starting from the ground up. Meeting Plus or Base involves making and installing fire-safe choices, such as:

• A fire-rated, Class A roof

• Noncombustible gutters and gutter covers

• Tempered windows

• Fire-proof doors

• Noncombustible siding and decking

It also requires prioritizing defensible space around the home, calling for thoughtfully distributed planting throughout the yard as well as hardscaping with gravel and stone to create fuel breaks. Meeting WPH requires the creation of a five-foot buffer zone (“Zone Zero”) immediately surrounding the home, which must be kept free from vegetation and flammable materials. 

Achieving the Plus designation requires homeowners to take additional steps, increasing cost but also wildfire resilience.

• Install dual tempered paned windows

• Non-combustible decking 

• Locate accessory structures—e.g., playsets, sheds, gazebos—away from the home (current requirement is 30 feet)

• Cover gutters and enclose eaves

For those unfamiliar with the benefits of standards like WPH’s Base and Plus standards, the additional cost and steps may seem overwhelming, and it can appear easier to simply stick to the minimum code requirements and retrofit a home later. But minimum codes are just that—minimums—they don’t necessarily reflect current or future climate risk. Rebuilding with fire safety in mind minimizes the risk of losing a home (again) to wildfire, ensuring a future home is better prepared to survive future disasters.

To better understand the differences between CA WUI Part 7, the WPH Base standard, and the WPH Plus standard, view the chart on this page.

Rebuilding is the Right Time to Prepare for the Next Fire

Creating a safer, more fire-resilient home is actually less expensive than retrofitting further down the road. According to Headwaters Economics, retrofitting an entire home to the highest fire safety standard can cost more than $100,000. 

When building from the ground up, there’s no pre-existing infrastructure to remove or demolish, which often makes for a more straightforward, less disruptive process. As the homeowner is pulling permits, hiring contractors, and making material selections, installing fire-resistant features can slot easily into the construction timeline.

The Return on Investment to Rebuild to Resilient Standards

Rebuilding with resilience doesn’t just improve a home’s safety; it also translates to ongoing savings. While homeowners are responsible for the costs they incur to rebuild above code to fire resilience standards, such as IBHS’s WPH, some are eligible for insurance premium discounts that lower their monthly insurance bills. 

California insurers must now provide premium discounts for fire-resistant construction, which range from a few percentage points to more than 40%, depending on the insurer and the resilience standards adopted. These features can also improve insurability and reduce the chances of insurance rates escalating over time.

The more people who build wildfire-resistant homes, the less likely insurers are to pay claims for wildfire damage, and the lower the odds they’ll have to raise rates to compensate. In fact, resilient building dramatically reduces the likelihood of future losses, per home and per neighborhood. Headwaters Economics finds that every $1 spent on rebuilding communities to be wildfire-resistant can save up to $210 in future damages. Zooming out, that means wildfire-resistant construction in L.A. could avoid up to $43 billion in future economic losses. 

There is a financing gap to rebuild with resilience