The first estimate stopped where the fire did. The smoke and water didn’t.
The loss
A fire damaged a Detroit home in November 2025. The burned rooms were obvious. The smoke that moved through the rest of the house, and the water used to put the fire out, were not.
We were brought in after the insurance company’s first offer.
The first pass
- $195,748 replacement cost for the building ($161,503 actual cash value).
- $104,981 replacement cost for contents ($46,615 actual cash value).
The full claim
- Damage documented room by room through the whole house.
- Repairs scoped to the industry’s smoke and Category 3 water standards.
- Moisture readings, asbestos testing and contents vendors.
- Appraisal: $319,335 for the building and $131,936 for contents, replacement cost.
What we did
We expanded the scope by documenting the damage the first estimate had missed: smoke in rooms the fire never reached, and water from firefighting that had soaked into walls and floors. Firefighting water counts as Category 3 under the industry’s restoration standards (IICRC), which calls for removal rather than drying in place.
We priced the repairs to those standards and backed them with moisture readings, asbestos testing, photos and DocuSketch.
The outcome
Appraisal settled the claim about seven months after we were engaged: $319,335 replacement cost for the building and $131,936 for contents.
Identifying details are limited to protect client privacy. Figures are the insurance company's documented position and the final settlement on that claim. Every claim is different, and past results don't predict the outcome of any future claim.
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