Most are aware of ever-escalating insurance rates in California, with some homes seeing year-over-year premium escalations of over 160%. Allstate and State Farm recently announced premium increases of over 30%, on top of hefty last year's premium increases.
Read more in this Insurance Journal article: "How California’s Homeowners Insurance Crisis Is Affecting Brokers"
At its core, combustibility of construction lumber is to blame for the chaos in the insurance market. As USDA Forest Service's own experts note, wood strength starts irreversibly decaying at temperatures as low as 65 degrees Celsius, far below what a structure engulfed in fire will experience.
In contrast to that, light gague steel is far more dimensionally and mechanically stable, experiencing no strength degradation at even 200 degrees Celsius.
Learn more about fire properties of cold formed steel from the excellent Steel Construction Institute publication P129.
We at Scottsdale have spent decades developing technology, including software and hardware, that enables framers, construction companies, and developers worldwide to produce their own steel framing and harness not only anti-fire resistance benefits, but also many other advantages of steel over wood. Why put up with 1/10th of strength at 10 times the weight only to see it all disappear in a blazing inferno, when you can build with light gague steel?