Wildfires are a growing threat, and one of the most common ways homes ignite is not from the main fire front, but from wind-blown embers. These tiny, fiery particles can travel for miles, finding their way into vulnerable areas of a home, especially through open vents in attics and foundations. BrandGuard Vents was founded by a firefighter who saw this problem firsthand and developed a solution to protect homes in wildfire-prone areas.
The BrandGuard Triple Protection System
BrandGuard Vents are not your standard ventilation product. They are engineered with a patented “triple protection” system designed to be a home’s first line of defense against embers and flames.
- Overlapping Baffle Design: The unique baffle design features overlapping layers that allow air to flow freely for ventilation but trap embers in the event of a wildfire. The innovative approach ensures that even during the most extreme conditions, your home remains protected from ember entry.
- Intumescent Strips: BrandGuard’s proprietary intumescent material is designed to expand in response to extreme heat and flames. When the temperature rises to dangerous levels, these strips expand to seal the vent openings, effectively blocking embers and preventing flames from entering your home. This flame and heat feature provides an added layer of protection, ensuring your vents respond proactively to wildfire conditions.
- 1/16″ Fine Mesh: The Ember Resistant Vents include a fine mesh that has 1/16″ openings and placed on the back side of the vent openings. This non-combustible metal mesh is designed to resist heat and flames, further blocking ember entry while still allowing for proper ventilation.
BrandGuard’s Intumescent Material
Being part of the Tenmat Passive Fire Protection Group, BrandGuard manufactures their own intumescent material in-house, making their fire and ember defense system unique to their products. Their custom intumescent formula features:
- Intercalated Graphite: the active element that expands when exposed to heat, providing effective sealing against ember entry.
- Rock Mineral Fibers: These fibers act as a scaffolding or matrix to support the intumescent material, ensuring durability and performance under extreme conditions.
- High-Temperature Organic Binders: The strips are bound with high-temp, organic materials to provide reliable protection that won’t degrade under fire conditions.
Their formula is award winning and industry leading, making BrandGuard unmatched in fire protection.
A Full Line of Fire-Resistant Vents
BrandGuard offers a comprehensive range of products to “harden” your entire home against wildfires, ensuring all potential entry points are protected. Each product is compliant with rigorous building codes for Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas.
Eave Vents (Fireplugs) – These small, round vents are a highly specific solution for protecting the existing ventilation holes in your home’s undereave blocks, often called “bird holes”. They use BrandGuard’s patented baffle design to block embers and fire, while their “plug” form allows for easy retrofitting without any re-drilling. This provides a simple and effective way to secure a common point of wildfire entry.
Gable Vents – These vents provide essential attic ventilation, ensuring your home is protected and compliant with fire-safety codes while also serving as a prominent architectural feature.
Foundation Vents – These vents are specifically engineered to prevent embers, flames, and pests from entering your crawl space, ensuring the safety and integrity of your home’s foundation.
Dormer Vents – Serving as both a decorative and functional architectural element, these vents provide essential ventilation for attics through a dormer.
Sub-Flashing Roof Vents – A perfect solution for retrofitting existing homes, these vents install under your current roof flashing from the inside the attic. This unique design allows you to easily convert a standard roof vent into a fire-resistant one, providing a critical safety upgrade that meets modern building codes without the need for major reconstruction.
Balcony Inspection Vents – These unique vents provide a solution for both fire safety and inspection compliance. Designed to meet the requirements of California’s SB-721 and SB-326, they feature a hinged design for non-destructive access to inspect balcony framing. They are also 1-hour fire-rated and WUI compliant, offering a two-in-one solution that protects against flames and embers while avoiding costly inspection-related repairs.
Soffit Vents – Providing essential cool air intake for attic ventilation, these vents are a foundational component of a fire-resilient home.
Why BrandGuard is a Smart Choice
Choosing BrandGuard Vents is an investment in the safety and longevity of your home. They have been rigorously tested and listed to meet strict fire safety standards, providing a robust solution that is both effective and durable. For homeowners in areas threatened by wildfires, upgrading to BrandGuard Vents is a critical step in building a fire-resilient home and gaining peace of mind.
