Covina : Ban on Wood-Shake Roofs
Last week’s fires in Santa Barbara and Glendale brought fire safety to the forefront of the City Council’s meeting Monday.
The council approved an amendment to the city’s design guidelines, prohibiting wood-shake roofs on new construction.
The amendment allows repairs of existing wood-shake roofs with fire-treated wood shake if the repair is no more than 25% of the roof area. If more roof must be repaired, the homeowner must switch to another roofing material, such as unglazed ceramic or concrete tile, asphalt, metal sheeting or tar.
After the meeting, Mayor Christopher W. Lancaster said he was concerned that the ban would increase the price of roofing materials. But he said the overriding concern was to prevent fires spreading from house to house.
The council also approved an amendment to the 1988 Uniform Fire Code requiring all new one- and two-family homes to have automatic fire sprinkler and local fire alarm systems. Mobile homes, detached garages and carports, and single-family homes that acquired building permits before April 30 were exempt.
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