Wildfire Victim's New Sonoma County Home Installed In 2 Days

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Replacing a home lost in the 2017 North Bay wildfires, a nearly 4,000-square-foot, single-family home was installed this week in just two days.

The new prefabricated home constructed by Plant Prefab and designed by San Francisco-based Piechota Architecture was installed Monday and Tuesday in the Petaluma Gap region of Sonoma.

The Sonoma residence is positioned on a rolling hillside with an active vineyard and a pond. According to Piechota Architecture, the home was designed in harmony with the landscape: its sloping roofline mimics the rise of the hillside, while tall glass walls open to cool breezes and fill the home with natural light.

Elements of the client’s original home, such as a guest wing and private master wing connected by an open-plan living area, were retained in the design, and custom cabinetry and countertops were milled from reclaimed Redwood and Oak trees lost in the fire.

“This has been a complex project, with elements of the structure that we thought would be challenging to modularize; but, through working with Plant Prefab, there’s no question that our new home, designed to high-quality finishing specifications, is coming at considerably less cost and at least months earlier than if we had relied solely on a general contractor,” the homeowner said.

The North Bay wildfires of October 2017 destroyed more than 5,000 structures across Northern California. Plant has completed several fire rebuilds in the area, with more than a dozen more in development for victims of other wildfires throughout the state.

“At Plant, with our offsite construction process and knowledge of fire-resilient materials and methods, we can offer a huge advantage for victims of California’s wildfires who want to rebuild sustainably, as quickly as possible, and cost effectively,” said Steve Glenn, founder and CEO of Plant Prefab. “We are honored to be part of a major effort in California to help fire victims to get back to their communities and their homes.”

Like all Plant Prefab homes, the new Sonoma residence was built in the company’s 62,000-square-foot Rialto facility following a sustainability program that minimizes negative impacts on energy, water, indoor air quality and material resources.

Fire resilience was a core focus of the home's design, siting, materials choices and construction. Utilizing Plant’s patented Plant Building System, all prefabricated components were custom constructed to comply with local building code, climate conditions, and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) zoning requirements. Non-combustible materials were used in the most vulnerable areas of the home, and the large, expressive overhangs of the class A-rated roof provide added protection.

“Our goal was to capture the spirit of the original residence, while accomplishing the homeowner’s desires for key upgrades, like enhanced fire resiliency, upscale finishes, and larger, more open living spaces,” said Daniel Piechota, principal of Piechota Architecture, which is currently working on projects in San Francisco, Big Sur, Carmel Valley, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe and Sonoma County.

“Plant’s offsite building system was able to help us achieve these goals in a more cost-effective manner than typical, site-based construction,” Piechota said.