Fire & Water Damage Renovations near you

Making safe means isolating services, propping anything unstable, getting the water out and weatherproofing whatever has been opened up. It is emergency work, and it is normally the point at which the insurer becomes involved and a loss adjuster is appointed. Nothing that will need to be justified later should be thrown away at this stage without a record of it.

Strip out comes next and it is deliberately more extensive than it looks necessary. Plaster wicks water upwards well above the visible tide mark, insulation in a wall or floor holds it long after the surface feels dry, and fire leaves smoke residues in cavities and voids that will keep producing a smell through any finish laid over them. The strip is what makes drying possible, and a strip that stops at the visible damage guarantees a problem later.

Drying is a measured process with an end point, not a period of time. A structure is dry when readings say it is, taken in the materials themselves rather than in the air, and a drying certificate or a set of monitored readings is the document to insist on before the rebuild starts. The temptation to start plastering because the household wants to move home is understandable and expensive: moisture sealed into a wall by new plaster and paint has nowhere to go, and it comes back as blown plaster, mould and a smell that nobody can locate.

Regulation 23 of the Building Regulations 2010 is the provision that turns a strip-out into an upgrade, and it applies in England and Wales. It provides that where the renovation of an individual thermal element constitutes a major renovation, or amounts to the renovation of more than 50 per cent of the element's surface area, the renovation must be carried out so as to ensure that the whole of the element complies with paragraph L1(a)(i) of Schedule 1, in so far as that is technically, functionally and economically feasible.

The same regulation deals with replacement. Where the whole or part of an individual thermal element is to be replaced, and the replacement constitutes a major renovation or, in the case of part replacement, amounts to the replacement of more than 50 per cent of the element's surface area, the whole of the thermal element must be replaced so that it complies with the same paragraph, again so far as technically, functionally and economically feasible.

A thermal element is a wall, floor or roof separating the inside of the building from the outside or from unheated space. That is exactly what gets stripped after a flood, when the plaster comes off the ground floor external walls and the floor comes up, and after a fire, when a roof or a whole external wall is opened. Whether the threshold is crossed is a question for the building control body, and it should be asked early, because the answer changes the specification - and therefore the claim - rather than only the price.

A damaged house is a disturbed house, and disturbance is what makes asbestos dangerous. Any property built or refurbished before the year 2000 may contain it, and a fire or a flood breaks open exactly the materials - board, insulation, textured coatings, floor tiles - where it is found. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and the practical steps for homeowners are covered in our handyman and wall and ceiling guides; the point specific to reinstatement is that the strip-out is the moment the question has to be answered, not after the skip has gone.

Electrics are the second. Flood water and fire-fighting water both get into accessories, cables and the consumer unit, and the damage is not always visible. An installation that has been wet needs inspecting and testing by a competent electrician before it is re-energised, and any circuits that are replaced are notifiable work in England and Wales with a certificate at the end.

Structure is the third, and it is mostly a fire question. Timber that has been charred has lost section, steel that has been heated and then cooled by hoses may have moved, and masonry that has been heated and rapidly quenched can be damaged in ways that do not show until a load is applied. Where fire has reached structural elements, an engineer's assessment belongs in the process before any rebuild specification is written.

The commonest failure in flood reinstatement is pace. Everyone wants the household back in, and the finishing trades are the ones that make that look achievable, so plaster goes on before the wall is dry. Six months later the paint blisters, the skirting behind it is black, and the work has to be done twice - and this time it is a dispute with the insurer about whether the second loss was caused by the first.

In fire reinstatement, the equivalent failure is odour. Smoke residues are extremely fine and they travel into cavities, loft spaces, ducts and the backs of joinery. Cleaning the visible surfaces and redecorating leaves them in place, and the smell returns on the first warm, humid day. Proper reinstatement deals with the residues in the voids and the ventilation system, not only with the surfaces people can see.

The third recurring problem is scope creep in both directions. Households sometimes try to fold an improvement into a claim, which sours the relationship with the loss adjuster; insurers' contractors sometimes price the minimum that will look acceptable, which leaves the fabric worse than before. A written scope, agreed drying evidence and a clear position on whether regulation 23 has been triggered are what keep both tendencies in check.

The estimate is shaped by how far the damage travelled rather than by the size of the room it started in. How much has to be stripped to make drying possible, how long drying takes and what equipment it needs, whether the property can be occupied during the work, whether structural elements were affected by heat or prolonged saturation, whether asbestos is present and has to be removed by a licensed contractor, whether reinstating more than half of a wall, floor or roof brings regulation 23 into play, and how much of the work is directed by an insurer's scope rather than by you. Two houses flooded to the same depth can differ enormously depending on how they were built.

LokalMatch does the introduction and leaves the rest to you and the contractor. Explain what has happened once, with your postcode and whether an insurance claim is running, and firms that handle reinstatement in your area will contact you. Homeowners are not charged; pros pay for the enquiries they get. LokalMatch does not carry out work, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend the businesses that respond, so check their experience of insurance work, their drying capability and their insurance cover yourself.