Fire damage

[bbe]

Went to give an estimate today , the wiring in the attic above the kitchen had caught fire and burnt a 4 foot hole in the ceiling. Any way the insulation was burnt from the wires that same amount. The insurance company told the owner to get a estimate for a upgrade and just fix the burnt cables. If it was you how would you go about fixing this , as far as how much would you replace? The cable a few feet away from the burnt area visually looks ok, the 3 affected cables are homeruns. I've never done any fire damaged repairs an just would like to know the right way to approach this. Thanks

 

[ceb58]

Went to give an estimate today , the wiring in the attic above the kitchen had caught fire and burnt a 4 foot hole in the ceiling. Any way the insulation was burnt from the wires that same amount. The insurance company told the owner to get a estimate for a upgrade and just fix the burnt cables. If it was you how would you go about fixing this , as far as how much would you replace? The cable a few feet away from the burnt area visually looks ok, the 3 affected cables are homeruns. I've never done any fire damaged repairs an just would like to know the right way to approach this. Thanks

I did one not long ago. the insurance co. said to just replace the melted recp. and plates. I pulled permits and had the head county inspector come and look at the job. His reply which I had in writing was he would not accept what the insurance company wanted. The room was wired from underneath and some of the sheath of the nm had scorch marks. He would accept my going under the crawl space and pulling out no less than three ft. of wire doing a j box and re-feeding the wire. The insurance co. had to accept his ruling and pay the bill.

 

[mxslick]

What caused this?

What caused this?

<snip>the wiring in the attic above the kitchen had caught fire and burnt a 4 foot hole in the ceiling.

What made the wiring catch fire? Bad splice in a j-box?

I think the answer to that is pretty important to determine the course of action.

 

[wolfman56]

I contract with a fire restoration company.

I contract with a fire restoration company.

I'm in the middle of a job, same type of fire damage. Here's the deal.

First, find out if the homeowner has a "code updates covered" clause in their policy.
Seperate the bid as, fire related, and code related.
The homeowner may be on the hook for the updates!

The code rules are this.....if a circuit was not correctly installed to the codes effective at the time installed.........YOU CANNOT REPAIR IT, it never was legal! You must make it to code! Everything you touch will have to be to code, some todays code, some the original code, depending on the depth of the repairs. You cannot reconnect any circuits that are improper.
Example, the house I'm doing has receptacles that are screwed to the wood paneling with no boxes. The circuit supplying them was fire damaged in the attic. I CANNOT repair the attic wire thus reconnecting unsafe and non compliant receptacles.
I get to rewire almost the whole house because it was the home runs that got damaged!
It's the only way the AHJ will allow. There's just no way you can repair an improperly installed system.
I make more money on the code updates, then the fire damage. And if there is update in the policy then it's all on the insurance company.

Also check with the AHJ, if they use the IBC for reconstruction, then the IBC states that todays standard for smoke detectors will apply. Smokes in every bedroom, and the hallway!
Rick

 

[alfiesauce]

I'm in the middle of a job, same type of fire damage. Here's the deal.

First, find out if the homeowner has a "code updates covered" clause in their policy.
Seperate the bid as, fire related, and code related.
The homeowner may be on the hook for the updates!

The code rules are this.....if a circuit was not correctly installed to the codes effective at the time installed.........YOU CANNOT REPAIR IT, it never was legal! You must make it to code! Everything you touch will have to be to code, some todays code, some the original code, depending on the depth of the repairs. You cannot reconnect any circuits that are improper.
Example, the house I'm doing has receptacles that are screwed to the wood paneling with no boxes. The circuit supplying them was fire damaged in the attic. I CANNOT repair the attic wire thus reconnecting unsafe and non compliant receptacles.
I get to rewire almost the whole house because it was the home runs that got damaged!
It's the only way the AHJ will allow. There's just no way you can repair an improperly installed system.
I make more money on the code updates, then the fire damage. And if there is update in the policy then it's all on the insurance company.

Also check with the AHJ, if they use the IBC for reconstruction, then the IBC states that todays standard for smoke detectors will apply. Smokes in every bedroom, and the hallway!
Rick

Bottom line your AHJ has the final say on how this gets dealt with. It does not matter who's paying for it (as long as it's not you of course) the AHJ is still going to be the one who says yay or nay to the wiring job you do.

 

[celtic]

Was there water damage from the FD?

 

[frenchelectrican]

I done few of them allready and here are few tips to keep in your mind when you run into them.,,

1] Make sure you doucument and photo all the damaged items before you start throw the linemans on the conductors.

2] Keep a open commuation line open between yourself and the inspector{s}

3] Don't let the insurance company override ya ( they will find a way to keep everything oringal )

I done in both American and European verison to repair the fire damge but the biggest issue are two items ., water damage and heat/smoke damage.

so again make sure you doucmented everything so that way you can able get it repaired in proper way and bring it up to current codes { I rather get this up to the current code first sometime insurance company may not like it at all }

Merci,Marc