I bought a 1940s house for 60000. It is on a beautiful river lot. The lot was worth more than the house as far as I thought. However, the old gas heater in the house malfunctioned and the living room was gutted by fire. The rest of the house has horrible smoke and heat damage. The insurance was for 60,000. The estimate was for 50,000. The contractor told me that I would have to spring for central heat and air myself because they only have to replace the gas heaters which I am scared of now. Plus he said the electric wasn't up to code and that would cost more too. I don't know if putting 50,000 into a house that should have been torn down anyway is the best way to go. Or should I tear down and try to rebuild??
I also have a very bad sensitivity to smoke and worry that they can't really get rid of the smell.
Thanks!

Good morning, Ms. Welch. I hope you had a nice Christmas and I'm sorry to hear of your recent troubles. Without seeing the extent of the damage, or knowing how structurally sound the house was even before the fire, I would have to say that I favor remodeling over rebuilding. $50K is a lot of money to me, but will not go very far when it comes to new construction, even if the old structure was already razed and the site cleaned up.

I've assisted in several post-fire cleanups, and with the exception of carpets and fabrics, have had very good success in getting rid of smoke residue and smell. It is a daunting task; time consuming and very messy, but a little ammonia will go a long way. I've also had success with one of the little handheld steam cleaners, especially on hard surfaces. Once the worst is removed, a coat or two of good quality primer should eliminate any remaining odor.

If you decide to rehabilitate rather than rebuild, I recommend taking one room at a time rather than trying to take on the whole house at once, and working from the ceilings down.

Good luck to you, whichever way you choose to go!

I can understand your fear of gas heating, but you have to remember that there are many millions of homes which use gas safely. and realize what safety features are built into gas appliances. Have a good heating contractor explain them to you, and it may allay your fears.

There are specialty contractors who specialize in eliminating smoke odors after a fire, and they do it quite well.

Whether you tear down or repair is largely a question of the architectural merit of the house, but $50,000 will not get you very far in the construction of a new house. I suspect you'll have to add at least another $100,000 to it for a new house, and possibly much more.

The electric is another matter. If you simply repair the fire damage, you will not be required to bring the electric up to current code. It should, of course, have any safety deficiencies corrected.

Your contractor sounds like the type who likes to bully people who are vulnerable. I would look for a more kind and considerate contractor, who will have the courtesy and patience to explain things fully to you. Your life will be much better if you do.

Your insurance company provided you with a quote of 50 grand to fix a fire damaged house. But you want more fixed then what their willing to pay.. Have you thought on getting a public adjuster involved? They work for you and represent you to increase the amount of claim your insurance company is willing to pay you. They get paid by getting a % of what additional monies they can get based on what the insurance company is willing to pay. You can find these folks in the yellow pages.
Remember the insurance company regardless of what they say about their willing to help are only in it for them. They make an attempt to make things whole but fall short of doing things correctly. For instance in your case. Smoke gets into all the insulation in the attic areas. This needs to be replaced. Your insurance company is only going to pay for the stuff that was damaged by the fire company from the water. Not stuff away from the room that caught fire. If the house wires have to be upgraded, should not be your problem. They should be figuring that into the repair. If the code does not allow for gas heaters in each room, then its the insurance company that needs to upgrade the heat. Same goes with the electrical side as well.
You will however need to pay for any upgrades that go beyond that 60 thousand in insurance. Tearing down a good home is not really an option as you will end up paying much more to rebuild.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Hetzel:
Your contractor sounds like the type who likes to bully people who are vulnerable.

Bully? From what I have read here the contractor told him 2 things.
"The contractor told me that I would have to spring for central heat and air myself because they only have to replace the gas heaters which I am scared of now" This is absolutely true, no insurance company is going to pay for heating and air conditioning system that wasn't there before, the contractor is giving him options - fix or replace the heaters that he's scared of now and the insurance will pay for it, or install another heating system at his expense.

Secondly,
"Plus he said the electric wasn't up to code and that would cost more too." Anything you have to replace, you have to bring it up to code, any first year electrician will tell you that. I've seen it so many times it would make your head spin. Unfortunately, they seem to think the contractor is to blame - it's no wonder I'm grumpy at work half the day.

Holly, you do have an option on the electrical that I would encourage, call your local state inspector and have him take a visit. He/she will be more than happy to help and tell you exactly what needs to be replaced and what can be left alone. No matter what anyone tells you, he/she will have the last word so it would be in your best interest to call and have him/her take a site visit.

As far as remodeling verses rebuild, without seeing it it's hard to comment. But you have to realize that the insurance is only going to pay to bring it back to orignal, meaning that if you bought it for $60,000, it won't be worth much more than that once remodelling is complete. So if want to upgrade anything, it will come out of your pocket. If you do decide to remodel, make sure you have a meeting with the contractor and insurance adjuster prior to contruction and find out how to handle change orders. This is extremely important because once you start opening up walls 8 times out of 10 there is more damage than was apparent from the beginning, this has to be addressed so make sure that a procedure is in place to deal with that.

quote:

Anything you have to replace, you have to bring it up to code, any first year electrician will tell you that

You didn't read what I said. I said that if you repair fire damage, you will not be required to bring the whole house up to current code standards. I stand by that statement.

I've run across contractors of this type occasionally, and I stand by what I've said there, too...they delight in taking advantage of a frightened and shaken homeowner whose knowledge in the matter may be less than complete. What the ****, maybe I can scare this one into some nice fat extra work for myself. It's very possible.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Hetzel:
You didn't read what I said. I said that if you repair fire damage, you will not be required to bring the whole house up to current code standards. I stand by that statement.

Actually I did read what you said and if you reread my response, "Anything you have to replace, you have to bring it up to code." You will see that I was refering to - well I don't know how to make it any clearer - anything you have to replace from the fire damage. I don't know how that would imply bringing the whole house up to code standards. The key sentence is "have to replace".

Richard I don't deny there are contractors that prey on vulnerable people, they give all of us a bad name and I think there should be stiffer penalties for those that are caught pulling this type of thing. But on the same token, you may have turned the orignal poster against the contractor for just doing his job. I see nothing he did wrong based on what she said, unfortunately the vagueness of the original post "the electrical wasn't up to code" prevents us from determining either way. If she comes back and says that the contractor meant the whole house, then yes - I would definitely question that.

I will say that holly, if you read this then I will re-emphasize the electrical inspector site visit. Any contractor, architect or insurance adjuster's opinion doesn't mean squat, the electrical inpector has the final say and what he says - goes. He has complete authority to tell you to rewire most of your house if he feels that damage has occured because of the fire and you have to comply. The good news is that the insurance has to cover that cost. The insurance adjustor cannot overrule the electrical inspector.

As a contractor, I rarely get involved in fire damage - there is too much risk for me and very little gain. Unless I need the work, I often refer them to another company. The only other time I do get involved is when there is an insurance adjustor that knows construction, surprisingly there are a few that don't. I was once asked by an insurance adjustor to remove about 250 cubic feet of water soaked cellulose insulation, dry it out and replace it - he couldn't understand (and ultimately got upset) when I told him that it would be cheaper to just replace it with new. I guess he failed to understand that we have to charge labor prices to do the work. The home care club also makes some very good points when it comes to insurance companies - they are not out to work for you, just themselves - the third party adjustor may not be a bad idea if you think that the insurance company is trying to shortchange you, or if you think the contractor is trying to make you pay for things that you feel you shouldn't. The independant adjustor will know who should be responsible for what.


I also agree with Home care club in that rebuilding will be much more expensive. I would use that as a last option.

Wow, small world. I recently got a call to come look at a job where there was standing water in the house - they took all the wall coverings off the walls and removed all the flooring and insulation. They wanted me to bid replacing all the pine v-joint on the walls. Pretty straight forward so I accepted. I noticed that the electrical panel was in the bathroom of all places. I told the insurance adjuster the electical inspector may say something about that when he came to inspect the replaced wall outlets. Guess what? The electrical inpector is now requiring that they build a 3 ft deep closet in front of the panel, making the bathroom all but useless. I agree that the panel should absolutely not be in a bathroom in the first place but because they took the wall coverings off, now they have to bring it up to code. There was no work needed to be done on the panel itself.