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Is the world becoming uninsurable?

(charleshughsmith.substack.com)
478 points spking | 2 comments | 17 Jan 25 00:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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Animats ◴[17 Jan 25 04:28 UTC] No.42734092[source]▶
Not uninsurable, but buildings are going to have to become tougher.

It's happened before. Chicago's reaction to the Great Fire was simple - no more building wooden houses. Chicago went all brick. Still is, mostly.

The trouble is, brick isn't earthquake resistant. Not without steel reinforcement.

I live in a house built of cinder block filled with concrete reinforced with steel. A commercial builder built this as his personal residence in 1950. The walls look like a commercial building. The outside is just painted cinder block. Works fine, survived the 1989 earthquake without damage, low maintenance. It's not what most people want today in the US.

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1. gregwebs ◴[17 Jan 25 10:44 UTC] No.42736159[source]▶
It seems some houses that focused on fire safety survived the fire with minimal damage.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/15/real-estate/passive-house-surv...

Metal roof, passive house so embers don’t get sucked in. Concrete walls around the property and plants that don’t contribute to the fire.

The house might cost an additional $100k to build compared to conventional. But it would make all that back on energy, roofing, and insurance costs- probably at the point the conventional home would need a roof replacement.

Builders don’t build such houses unless a client or building code mandates it.

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2. gregwebs ◴[17 Jan 25 14:23 UTC] No.42737776[source]▶
Other sources say the house wasn’t a passive house but did have fire rated walls.

It seems like a lot of fire resistance can be created just by focusing on defensible space and having a concrete or metal fence. Then protecting the roof ventilation from fire (there are special screening materials that can be bought). Then using class A rated materials on the roof and then the exterior. Then metal framed windows instead of vinyl. Actually doesn't cost that much more- they should require it in building codes in these areas. The issue then is retrofit- insurers should probably require a defensible space in these high risk areas.

https://youtu.be/yZe-TlYxm9g?si=Uuqy6rhrhUb8l-_c