What Goes Into a Fire Damage Estimate?

10/27/2021 (Permalink)

Commercial fire in Hickory Hollow, TN

What Does a Fire Damage Estimate Entail?

After a fire on your commercial property, one of the first steps is having an insurance adjuster out to evaluate the damage and determine what you can claim on your insurance. You may also have a commercial fire professional from Hickory Hollow, TN, out to determine exactly what you can salvage, and how. But what exactly does a fire damage estimate entail?

Evaluating What Can Be Saved, and How

While an insurance estimator is determining how much you can be reimbursed for your losses, a fire damage estimator’s job is to:

• Provide immediate emergency response to prevent secondary damage through mitigation
• Fully assess the extent of the damage and give an accurate picture of remediation efforts
• Determine what can be cleaned and restored
• Determine what should be torn out/destroyed and rebuilt/replaced from scratch
• Provide a cost breakdown for cleaning and teardown services
• Deliver an approximate timeline for completion

Will My Insurance Cover the Cost of Fire Damage Restoration?

The amount of a fire damage estimate may not match with the amount of an insurance claim, but only the fire damage professional and insurance adjustor can provide accurate information on that depending on the extent of the damage to the property. The claim may fully or partially cover the cost of fire remediation. Unless you intend to pursue further claims with your insurance company, anything not paid by the claim would come out of pocket.

Does Cleanup Include Deodorization?

If you’re working with a qualified company, yes. Smoke odor can permeate items with a lasting stench, often associated by yellowed smoke stains. If the odor is strong enough, it can last years and create an unpleasant effect on anyone in the vicinity of the smoke-damaged, contaminated items. A reputable, qualified company will include deodorization in your fire damage estimate, and will have the tools and chemicals necessary to remove smoke odor from even the most porous items without damaging them.