Fire Restoration Help - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Dyer · 09-27-2009, 04:48 PM

Got a job coming up, I think it’s going to go good but I’m asking anyway…
The job is a 3 story building , each floor has a brick wall with fire soot on them, NO paint, brick’s are old but in good shape.
Walls are 63’ x 8’ total of all walls is 1328 sqft
The whole house is under construction and no finished walls up yet. There’s easy access to all walls.
And the people are going to have it repointed after.
You guys that do the fire restorations, What do I charge?
Done a brick house (outside) with paint and it went really good, this has no paint. it's more like cleaning them?

CO2Solutions · 09-27-2009, 05:00 PM

I'm fairly new to Fire Resto as well and was wondering what to charge - I eventually went with a square foot price opposed to hourly or a job rate. The price I settled on was $1.10/square foot, of course I have my incidentals charge (ie tyveks, filters, fuel blah, blah...). Overall, after my first couple jobs i was happy with what I made in the end. Soot is fairly easy to clean off, usually brick goes really fast!

Betterblast · 09-27-2009, 05:49 PM

Do you have to set up scafold ?

Betterblast · 09-27-2009, 05:52 PM

Will you use extra blast hose to reach that high

blastserv · 09-27-2009, 06:38 PM

i just bid on a night club resto that is all brick and came up with a little more sq ft but gave them a 1.50 per sq ft price and felt good about it for both parties involved.i think with DIB i would be way more thats just me though...

CO2Solutions · 09-27-2009, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blastserv

i just bid on a night club resto that is all brick and came up with a little more sq ft but gave them a 1.50 per sq ft price and felt good about it for both parties involved.i think with DIB i would be way more thats just me though...

oh yeah, it would be more...but I use Soda for fire restoration - I only use dry ice in certain situations where soda can't be used (media mess).
$1.50 is a good price - I'd be happy with that as well! well done.

kell490 · 09-27-2009, 11:14 PM

The vendor that sold me the machine said insurance pays 2.25 a sq foot for fire damage. Of course that could be to just sell me the machine.

Dyer · 09-28-2009, 05:33 AM

Thanks guy's I thought around 1.50 too.
Just a Note, all walls are in side, none over 8', 1 st & 2 nd floor has accsses 3 rd I would have to use extra 30' of hose maybe?

Its nice to know that alot of us are thinking the same. I love this site.

When the people you work with help each other, it helps all our busniess grow.

Thanks again everyone.

Dyer · 09-29-2009, 08:46 PM

Did a test run on fire damage. Had to dicker on cost, I had in my head a price so I started high.
Got $1.50 sqft finally.
After doing a 3x3 spot and they saw the results, thay went for the price. What a tough sale.
I only had to drive 20 min to job site. Work’s a bit slow so I didn’t mind. My tender talked to two people while I was doing it, maybe more work in the area.
Took pictures before and half way home remembered that I forgot to talk pictures after.. crap I always do that!

Thank again Guys!

rlaird · 09-29-2009, 08:58 PM

Xactimate Insurance Standard pricing

Sodablast Brick

Light soot 1.20
Medium 1.60
Heavy 1.86

Plus containment and clean up
Hope that helps

Dyer · 09-30-2009, 07:13 AM

Ya it helps alot THANK YOU!!!

Done alot of cars and Boat Bottom's,
Still new to the fire resto...

KennMacMoragh · 09-30-2009, 08:35 AM

So which one is it, Pepsi or Coke? I actually learned something from this thread, never heard of soda blasting. Now I wonder why a fire resto company I worked for never used this, they always pressure washed, guess they were too cheap to get one.

Betterblast · 09-30-2009, 09:16 PM

They actually preasure washed the inside of a house? It gets cold in Seattle. You must have been ice skating somtimes.

Dyer · 10-02-2009, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KennMacMoragh

So which one is it, Pepsi or Coke? I actually learned something from this thread, never heard of soda blasting.

Moxie

wesschaff · 10-02-2009, 08:11 PM

Do not forget 10% overhead+10% profit and Oyeah add for equipment rental too for Xactimate-looks a little better after that.

kell490 · 10-04-2009, 01:51 PM

How do you find these kinds of jobs?

CO2Solutions · 10-04-2009, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KennMacMoragh

So which one is it, Pepsi or Coke? I actually learned something from this thread, never heard of soda blasting. Now I wonder why a fire resto company I worked for never used this, they always pressure washed, guess they were too cheap to get one.

That's crazy! pressure washing a fire resto job...unless the home is Totally gutted, no electrical etc...even then, you deal with other elements - weather, mould etc. I can't even see how water can get the soot out of wood anyhow? lol...

Betterblast · 10-04-2009, 04:01 PM

Good question Kell. I called my insurance agent and started to inquire about it. They said they usually use one of the big companies like Serve pro. It may be that insurance won't work with a little guy. Servepro may however vend the work out to our kind. For my auto glass business there are networks that I have to be on inorder to do any work for insurance. I wonder if it is the same for this. If I get any real answers I will post it.

rlaird · 10-04-2009, 08:03 PM

Hey,
ServiceMaster, Servpro, Independant fire restoration contactorslook them up in your phone book under Fire Restoration or Water Damage,most do both.
All you have to do is call These guys and let them know you have a sodablaster,If they arent doing it in-house they will probably sub you out.
Just tell them you want to make some money and you would like to make them some too.
The only problem with insurance work is the pay can be 30-60-90 days as these guys don't have the money to pay you until the customer ok's the insurance company to pay them.

The applications for fire restoration are saving brick fireplaces that would not clean up, exterior brick, sandstone,and sooted studs in attics that are not structurally damaged. There are numerous other thingsthat can be done like blasting tile floors, toilets, sinks, showers, and on and on. It also doesn't hurt to look up the structural contractors who also do fire restoration. It is tough to market the insurance agents to just do soda blasting because that falls under the umbrella of a fire restoration contractor.
Most of which are on a program that gets job assignments directly from the claims department. SoIf you want insurance work that is theway to do it.
Hope this helps