Putting a burned building back together

Reconstruction begins with a subtraction problem. Somebody has to decide, member by member, which of the structure still standing is structure and which is fuel that stopped burning. Get that wrong in the generous direction and the odor never leaves; get it wrong in the other direction and a repairable house becomes a demolition. The reasoning behind those calls is worth knowing before the first estimate arrives.

What stays and what comes out

Charred wood is not automatically failed wood. Char forms an insulating layer that slows burning into the member, so a large timber can lose a shallow depth and keep most of its capacity, while a two-by-four with the same char depth has lost a much larger fraction of its section. The assessment is about remaining sound cross-section, measured after the char is removed, and where the numbers are close it belongs to a structural engineer rather than to a contractor's eye. Members that pass may still be sistered; members that fail come out.

Engineered products behave less forgivingly. Roof and floor trusses depend on toothed metal plates pressed into the wood at every joint, and heat that chars or shrinks the wood under a plate lets the teeth lose their grip, so a truss can be condemned for damage at a connection while the chords look sound. I-joists lose capacity quickly when the thin web is burned through, even locally. Steel is its own case: unprotected steel loses strength and deforms as it heats, which is why fire-damaged metal buildings so often fail at the roof rather than at the walls.

Wallboard has a property most people have never heard of. Gypsum contains chemically bound water, and holds fire back by giving that water up as steam; once it has, the board is calcined, meaning weakened and crumbly, and it stays that way after it cools and dries. Calcined board can look completely normal from the room side. That is the reason heat-exposed drywall is replaced on the strength of where the heat went rather than on the strength of where the stains are. Masonry has a parallel problem, spalling at the surface where trapped moisture flashed off, which shows up as face shells popping off brick and mortar losing its bond.

1. You callOne number per county. The dispatcher takes the address, the ZIP and a short description of what happened.
2. A local crew calls backAn independent restoration contractor already working that county rings you directly and sets a time.
3. They look, then scope itNothing is priced from a phone call. The crew walks the building, takes readings, and writes a scope you can hand to your adjuster.

The order of a rebuild

Nothing starts before the fire investigation releases the building. After that the sequence is fixed and each step gates the one behind it.

• Demolition of failed structure, burned insulation and contaminated finish, taken back to sound material rather than to a convenient line.
• Drying, because the water used to put the fire out is now in the framing, the subfloor and the insulation cavities.
• Char removal and cleaning of the exposed structure, by media blasting in an attic or by hand where access is tight, followed by sealing where the wood still holds odor.
• Structural repairs, then the mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough work, with inspections at each stage.
• Insulation and wallboard, then finishes, cabinetry, flooring and paint.
• A final walkthrough with the odor test done on a warm, closed-up day rather than with the windows open.

The water from the hose is part of the fire job

A structure fire is also a wetting event. Hose streams and sprinkler discharge put a large volume of water into ceilings, wall cavities, insulation and subfloors, and that water carries soot down through the building with it. Closing walls over wet, contaminated framing produces exactly the outcome everyone fears: a rebuilt house that smells, and then grows something behind the paint. Drying is therefore a step inside the fire job, documented with readings, and finish work waits on it.

That is different from a plumbing failure or storm flooding with no fire involved, which is a separate line of work. In Craighead County this line handles fire only, and being told so before you call is more useful than finding out afterward. In Crittenden County both lines run.

Code, permits and the part insurance may not pay

Repair work is done to the code in force now, not the code in force when the house was built. On a substantial fire rebuild that can mean interconnected smoke alarms, arc-fault and ground-fault protection on circuits being replaced, egress requirements at bedroom windows, updated insulation values and updated venting for fuel-burning equipment. Inside city limits the building official reviews and inspects; in Jonesboro, West Memphis and Marion those are city departments, and outside city limits the requirements differ.

Here is the part that surprises people at settlement. A standard property policy pays to restore what was there. The additional cost of bringing the rebuilt portion up to current code is usually covered only if the policy carries ordinance or law coverage, and often only up to a stated percentage. Ask that question in the first week, in writing, because the answer changes the budget on a large rebuild and it is a poor discovery to make when the rough electrical fails inspection.

How the money actually arrives

Most policies pay replacement cost in two parts. The first check is actual cash value, meaning the replacement cost less depreciation. The remainder, called recoverable depreciation, is paid after the work is completed and invoiced, which means a homeowner who takes the first check and stops does not get the rest. If there is a mortgage, the lender is usually named on the check and releases funds in stages against inspections, so the draw schedule has to be understood before anyone starts.

Two more line items decide whether a rebuild goes smoothly. Additional living expense covers the cost of living elsewhere while the house is unlivable, and it runs against a limit and often a time cap, so a slow start burns it. Supplements cover work discovered after the original estimate, which on a fire job is routine, since nobody knows what is behind the wallboard until it comes off. Documenting hidden damage with photographs as it is uncovered, rather than describing it later, is what gets a supplement approved.

Rebuilding is what these towns have always done

Monette has been through this repeatedly. Three separate fires struck the town in 1912 alone, two in January and one in December, forcing the rebuilding of a wood-frame commercial core, and on December 10, 2021 a tornado at EF3 strength took two industrial buildings at the west edge of town, tore most of the roof off the Monette Manor nursing home and knocked down its masonry exterior walls. Edmondson, in southern Crittenden County, rebuilt after fires in 1927, 1952 and 1975 on top of the floods it had already survived.

Terrain shapes the work more than people expect. Jonesboro sits on Crowley's Ridge at roughly 330 feet, on wind-deposited loess that can run tens of feet deep, with steep slopes and cut valleys through parts of the city; away from the ridge, the county drops onto flat alluvial lowland. A rebuild on a ridge lot deals with slope, access and drainage around a foundation, while the same rebuild on lowland deals with a high water table under the crawl space. Crittenden County is bottomland throughout, with Sharkey clay, the heavy dark soil farmers call buckshot, which drains slowly and moves with moisture, so site drainage and foundation detailing get attention there that they would not need on the ridge.

Common questions

Photograph what you can, move what is loose, and call the county number.