Most homes aren't lost to a wall of flame — they're lost to embers finding one weak detail. Hardening is closing those details, one system at a time.
These are real research demonstrations from IBHS — the insurance industry's own building-science lab. They're hard to watch once. Then the fear turns into a list of fixable things, and that list is this page.
IBHS demonstration: embers reach a wood fence; the fence walks the fire to the wall. A steel section breaks the path.
The insurance industry's own lab — wind-driven ember demonstrations showing why vents, eaves, and gutters are the front line.
IBHS's Wildfire Prepared Home program — the side-by-side science behind every system on this page, and the designation a hardened home can earn.
These links open independent research and demonstrations from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) — the insurance industry's own building-science lab. IBHS is not affiliated with Stoneridge; their science is simply the best there is. Their finding, in short: most homes are lost to embers, not the advancing flame front.
Every home is different — the assessment tells us which of these matter most on yours, and in what order.
Ember-resistant vents and enclosed eaves close the openings embers exploit first. Invisible from the street, and usually the best risk-per-dollar on the whole list.
Typically Phase OneClass A roofing, sealed edges, metal gutter guards — so the place embers land isn't lined with dry debris waiting for them.
Typically Phase OneFiber-cement or stucco over vulnerable wood — a cleaner, warmer exterior than most homes started with, built to Chapter 7A.
Larger Phase · PlannedIgnition-resistant decking, and the last five feet of fence in steel or masonry where it meets the house. Wood stops before the wall does.
Phase Two TerritoryThe first five feet around the house, redesigned — hardscape at the wall, planting moved out where it can breathe and be seen. The full story has its own page.
Often Paired With FencingDual-pane tempered glass where radiant heat exposure matters most — usually fewer windows than homeowners fear, and the assessment tells you which.
As the Assessment DirectsChapter 7A is California's building code for homes in wildfire-exposed areas: tested materials, specified assemblies, real requirements for vents, roofing, decking, and exterior walls. New hillside homes have to meet it. Ours is a simple position: if the state requires it for a new home in your neighborhood, it's the right standard for upgrading yours — and it's the standard your insurance company recognizes when they read our documentation.
No — and most families don't. The assessment produces a phased roadmap ordered by risk reduction per dollar. Many clients do vents, eaves, and gutters in year one and plan the bigger work from there. And every phase counts on its own: the protection is real the day it's installed, whether or not your insurance company is satisfied yet. You're not working toward safety someday — you're banking it step by step.
Different, occasionally — worse, no. Most phase-one work is invisible from the street. The visible work (siding, fencing, Zone Zero) is designed, not just installed; see the Zone Zero page for the honest version of that conversation.
We don't negotiate with them — no contractor honestly can. What we do is produce the thing they keep asking for: photo-and-spec documentation of completed work, phase by phase, in a format an underwriter can actually use.
Request a hardening assessment and we'll confirm a time — Zone Zero to roofline, written roadmap in hand before you spend a dollar on construction.
Request a Hardening Assessment