Question: How can you build outdoor structures for bushfire prone areas?
Answer: The obvious choice is to use non-combustible materials for the structures, such as steel and brick. These products are not only non-combustible and will meet stringent local council planning regulations, they are also strong and require less maintenance than timber.
Question: How can you build outdoor structures for bushfire areas that not only meet council regulations but also look good?
Answer: This is perhaps a more difficult question and it was one that was faced by the owners of this home in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney. In particular, they needed a set of steel stairs erected to gain access to their deck, but they wanted stairs that were not only fire-safe and strong, but also attractive.
They called on Richard Narborough from Outside Concepts Sutherland Shire Branch to help them find a solution and his rather unique resolution was to use a product that’s more commonly found on rooftops than stairs. After building an extremely strong – but lets face it pretty ugly – set of stairs, Richard painted the treads and then used colour-matching Colorbond flashing to line the skirts and risers of the stairs.
The result is a set of stairs that look great and will survive the test of time and even a bushfire!
Note: There are plans to do more work in the near future. This includes tiling the steel deck that the stairs lead to, erecting balustrading and attaching Colorbond flashing to the deck perimeter. More on this work in a later blog.
Find out about Outside Concepts’ 10-year structural warranty. Call us on 1800 601 674.
