Lake county fires and your insurance claims

[Kmarcheschi]

I'm sure a ton of you have had issues with your insurance and claims and wondering if you are getting the right compensation. I don't have a ton of free time, but I'm happy to help consult and answer any questions you have on how it all works, it gets confusing and can be a headache.

I'm happy to help any of the fishing community out or their family/ close friends free of charge of course.

I will be up all week in the area doing inspections, and should be able to swing by and help out best I can.

707-387-6432

Kevin Marcheschi-

[mark poulson]

Kevin,
When I did fire restoration work, many years ago, we had a rule of thumb that if the char was less than 1/4" deep, a structural member was okay.
It that still the rule of thumb?
Also, we used to lightly sand blast charred wood to remove the fire damage, and lessen the fire smell.
Is that still done?

[Kmarcheschi]

Mark,

The thoughts on this change year in an out within the industry, my thoughts and ethics are as follows.

You're allowed for a reasonable uniform appearance as well as pre loss condition. Although a 1/4" of char or "alligator" is ok structurally typically, if it was my home I would want it gone completely. Some people may be ok with it being there, regardless you are owed what you are owed, whether you choose to do this or not it up to you.

It's kind of like flooring, say you have an open floor plan and you damage part of your kitchen wood floor. They may not be able to match you're floor reasonably so they would have to pay for the kitchen, dining room and living room floor because it's all the same. And they may pay you $20,000.00 to do it. Now you could totally just replace your kitchen area and switch it to tile. And leave the rest of the floor you would still get $20,000. But it may cost you a bit more for a tile area in the kitchen so you pay $2500 for tile floor in kitchen only. But you get to keep the 17,500.00

Make sense?

As with the odor issue every home I have been in so far has at least minor smoke damage (ash,soot, odor, etc) the main thing is getting the odor gone.

Things like insulation in your attic, or crawl space should be removed and replaced. This will hang onto odor for some time. The HVAC should be cleaned and filters replaced. Hepa vacuuming on horizontal surfaces at a minimum. And a minimal wet wipe with a smoke degreaser should be used on etchable materials ( tile, ceramics, porcelain, glass, vinyl)
If smoke is allowed to stay it can be very acidic and permanently damage materials.

If odor persists, an odor blocking primer may be used, ozone treatment ( oxidized air ) or thermal fogging (solvent based vapor) to help rid odor. And if the chat is bad enough either scrape, ice blast or replace those items.

Also for those of your battling with trying to clean and deodorize your refrigerator, your insurance is going to typically replace your fridge or freezer. I probably totaled 20 refrigerators today due to rotting meat.

[mark poulson]

Thanks.
Most people have no clue what's covered in fire damage ins., and never worry about it until it happens to them.
The more info you can share, the better they understand what's covered, and what to look for in their policies.

[DanIsaac]

Thanks Kevin that info helps......Dan