Tips for Renovating Your Home to Ensure Future Weather Resistance
In the face of increasingly extreme weather events, it's essential to ensure that our homes are equipped to withstand the challenges ahead. Here's a comprehensive guide to renovating your home in a climate-friendly and resilient manner.
Climate Risk Consultations
A climate risk or heavy rain consultation can provide a more detailed assessment of your property's vulnerability to extreme weather. These consultations are often offered free of charge or subsidized by municipalities, consumer centers, or energy consulting offices.
Heat Protection and Cooling Solutions
Heat protection is a significant issue in older properties during high summer temperatures. While awnings and roller shutters are common solutions, heat pumps can also provide cooling, passively reducing indoor temperatures by three to five degrees.
Resilient Buildings: The Future of Home Renovation
Markus Hennecke from the Bavarian Chamber of Engineers-Construction talks about resilient buildings, which are designed to withstand extreme climate events and quickly return to operation after weather events.
Protecting Older Homes from Extreme Weather
Owners of older homes can protect their property from extreme weather by waterproofing the basement walls and floors, installing pressure-resistant windows that open outward, and removing impervious surfaces on the property to improve water absorption. Moving critical infrastructure like heating systems to upper floors and securing movable items before flooding also helps.
Insurance and Technical Protections
It's crucial to consider obtaining a comprehensive elementar (natural hazard) insurance that covers damage from storms, floods, heavy rain, and earth movements. For historic or listed buildings, specialized insurance and expert planning for damage repair preserving the building's character are important. Installing technical protections like backflow preventers in basements are often required by insurers.
Renovating with the Environment in Mind
Not all protective measures have to be expensive. Planning ahead is key to an effective and cost-efficient renovation. Environmental and building authorities, as well as local water associations, also provide information about protective measures.
Combining Protection with Climate Change Adaptations
Installing a photovoltaic system or greening part of the roof during renovation can combine building protection with climate change adaptations, potentially reducing energy costs.
The Importance of an Individual Consultation
An individual consultation before renovation is usually sensible to determine what is possible and to identify possible weak points in the house. An independent expert should ideally inspect the property thoroughly to get first indications and identify possible weak points.
De-sealing and Holistic Approach
When it comes to heavy rain and flooding, de-sealing larger areas of the property can allow some water to seep into the ground instead of flowing into the basement. Approaching renovations in a needs-based and holistic manner can help face storms, heavy rain, and heat more calmly in the future.
Budgeting for Renovations
The budget for renovations determines what is possible and what is not. If the budget is limited, it's particularly important to first tackle measures that make the house fit for climate change and are economically sensible.
Location-Specific Protective Measures
The location of the property can influence which protective measures are sensible. In flood-prone areas, essential infrastructure like heating or home technology should be moved to the upper floors permanently to avoid damage.
Symbols of Climate Change: Flooded Basements
Katja Fischer discusses the impact of heavy rain and flooding on basements, likening flooded basements to symbols of climate change consequences. An initial assessment of potential risks can be provided by hazard maps, which are often available online from federal states or municipalities.
Every Step Counts
Every step taken during renovation is meaningful, according to energy expert Alexander Steinfeldt. He states that renovating existing buildings is always a compromise compared to a new building. But every step taken towards resilience is a step towards a safer and more sustainable future.
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