Home inspection after smoke damage?

General Inspection Topics
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Hello to all and happy weekend!

Looking for advice/input, all points of view welcome.

Just did a home inspection for a semi detached where the neighbor had an electrical fire. Supposedly the owner’s insurance company came in and cleaned everything up (which they clearly did not) and put it back the way it should have been.

What they did do

Replaced the insulation in the attic (party wall is masonry, no other coverings)
Cleaned the underside of the roof sheathing
“cleaned” the house (without even removing a thing from any wall or any of the contents or soft goods)
put in 3 indoor air scrubbers (HEPA)
drilled some 4" holes in the common wall - which is nothing more than drywall on 1/2" strapping over masonry, no isolation to do “air testing”

What they didn’t do (this is where i’m looking for input)

Paint anything, inside attic, walls, nothing (no visible smoke damage)
Remove anything from any wall or wash walls with TSP
Remove contents
Tell homeowners to discard open food
thermal fogging
ozone generators
etc…etc… I don’t even know what should have been done to this point.

When you open the front door, you can still smell the smoke, its pungent in the kitchen, which was the closest room to the fire, no cabinets were removed, no contents, etc.

As soon as you walk over to the neighbor’s place (windows open) you really smell it.

I’ve never been asked to deal with this before and want to be careful about my liability.

I ran Indoor air quality tests on all floors, noted the pungent odor and even left the place hacking up phlegm, so there’s an issue for sure, but insurance says the IAQ is “OK”, when clearly, there is an issue.

Anyone ever dealt with this before and is there a standard protocol for what do to after smoke damage/smell.

Should i defer them to a fire restoration company for 3rd party independent reporting on what to do with the smell?

Any and all advice is appreciated - except for someone telling me to put a bowl of vinegar in the kitchen :slight_smile:

Thanks team!

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I do not think this matters in our world.

Report on your observations.

Then:
Recommend a remidiation contractor.

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3

Your just doing the inspection. Report your findings including smells. Put anything that you think is related to the fire damage in the report. Let someone else sort it out.

When you recommend remediation you are recommending the type of service without recommending a particular company.

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If everything isn’t encapsulated, I recommend further evaluation and/or correction by a fire restoration expert.

The pungent smell of prior fire damage can vary greatly by how much moisture or humidity is in the air. My grandparents lived in a home that was damaged by a fire before they moved in. On a normal day, the house smelled like coffee and the 3 packs of cheap Raleigh cigarettes that they smoked a day. On a super humid or rainy day, the smell of the charred wood overwhelmed everything else.

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My folks dealt with fixing up a house after a fire. It was predominantly smoke damage and water clean up, very little structural damage to the 60 year old tight grain lumber. Once all the drywall and loose stuff was out the contractor hit all the exposed wood with either a dry ice or soda blaster (I forget which) and then encapsulated it. Then the home’s interior was essentially rebuilt. I can’t imagine getting the smell out otherwise. It took three washings to get the smell out of my clothes after walking through the structure days after the fire.

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Anecdotal stories, interesting as they are, should be kept out of your dealings with clients. The reason is simple, people’s perceptions of what you tell them will vary greatly. While they could believe you are vastly experienced, they could also be overwhelmed by new fears and apprehensions. Our job is to report facts and observations only, not influence the sale or purchase by speculation or conjecture.

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