Thread: Smoke damage repair

Hello,
please forgive me if this is in the wrong spot. I live in Washington DC in an ~100 year old 2 story brick row house. that shares a party wall on either side. My neighbor accidentally started a fire in her house, and we suffered smoke damage but no structural damage. Our neighbor lived in her house for 35 years and so had no mortgage and thus was carrying no insurance. So our insurance company is on the hook.

We have had a smoke remediation company working on the house for nearly 3 months but the smoke odor is still present. The worst damage in neighbor's house has slowly been cleaned out but smoke damage inside remains while she lives with relatives elsewhere.

Our insurance compoany is ready to call it a day and thinks they ahve done the best they can. However, we are wondering what other avenues could be explored. To date the remediation company has:

cleaned the ductwork
washed all surfaces
run air cleaners and ozone machines

Upstairs (where the fire began):
removed the entire upstairs ceiling, and insulation; installed turbine vents in the roof; along the party wall above the ceiling line cleaned brick surfaces, sanded and sealed all rafters and joists, sprayed a chemical called hydrocide, tried to mortar over the brick in party wall and fill other small breeches and crevasses with foam insulate; in the front bedroom where smoke was strongest, they have removed all the drywall and cleaned and coated the plaster with a sealant (but not in second BR or bath)

Downstairs
In the front half of the house they removed the ceiling, sanded and sealed the 2nd floor floor joists, cleaned, mortared and tried plugging crevasses in teh brick part of the aprty wall that was exposed. They have done nothing to the drywall downstairs besides clean it. The back half of the first floor (the kitchen) has jsut been sealed off but no work has been done there, and it smells half decent.

The strongest smell initially was upstairs but that has been relieved somewhat, while the downstairs is still quite strong.

I am wondering if there are any recommendations for additional work or inspection we should insist on before the house is put back together that might help to reduce the odor, or if we are likely just stuck with a smokehouse.

Thanks,

Dave Kaufman

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Try doing on line under smoke damage repair! or the likes.

Hope this helps