First: Did the Fire Get Into a Cavity
The question everything else depends on. On balloon-framed housing the wall studs run continuously from sill to roof with no fire stop at floor level, and the joist channels under the floors connect to those wall channels.
An inspector is looking for the point of entry: a burned-through wall surface, a service penetration, an opening around a chimney or a stair. If the fire never entered, the damage is what it appears to be. If it did, the visible damage tells you almost nothing.
How Is That Established?
Second: How Far It Travelled
If the fire entered the cavity, the inspection follows it. Upward through the stud channels, downward, and laterally through the interconnected joist channels beneath floors and above ceilings.
This is why the attic gets checked early on these buildings, and why a large finished attic room complicates the assessment as much as it complicated the firefighting. Char in an attic void above a room that looks untouched is a common finding and it changes the file completely.
Third: Char or Loss
Where the fire reached timber, the question is whether the damage is a surface phenomenon or a structural one. Old-growth dimensional lumber chars on the outside and frequently retains its capacity, so members can be assessed, cleaned back and kept with damaged sections replaced individually.
That is the good news case on this stock, and it is common enough to be worth checking rather than assuming the worst.
Who Makes That Call?
Fourth: What the Water Reached
Frequently the larger half of the damage and consistently underestimated. Water used to fight the fire runs down through the same continuous cavities the fire travelled up, and it soaks into plaster, lath and insulation that will hold it for weeks.
On a building with an open roof or an open wall, weather then continues the process. This is the mechanism by which a repairable frame becomes a compromised one over a few months of indecision.
Fifth: The Lead Position
Not structural and equally consequential. Whether the building predates 1978, whether it is a rental dwelling and therefore inside the Certificate of Lead Conformance regime, and what any repair will require in the way of EPA-certified firms and certified renovators.
An inspection that establishes the structure and ignores this has answered half the question.
What We Do With Your Address
The fire report. First, for the origin, because on this stock origin predicts extent.
The assessor's record. Build year and tenure indicators.
The land evidence records. Held municipally, for the deed and any encumbrances.
Then somebody on site, where the origin suggests the fire may have entered a cavity. We would rather look once and quote once.
What Comes Back
A written figure with each line visible: finished value, cost of the work, carrying cost and margin. The cost line states what it assumes about the concealed damage, because that is the assumption most likely to be wrong on any offer you receive.
What If Repairing Beats Selling?
What Never Happens
No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the site, commission a report or repair anything first. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. And we never close up, board over or cover the interior before closing, because that destroys the only evidence of what the fire actually reached and leaves you unable to prove the favourable case to anyone.
Common Questions About the Process
How Long Does It Take?
Address to written figure is usually a few days, or a little longer where somebody needs to visit. The insurance claim does not have to be settled first.
Do I Need to Be in Rhode Island?
No. Out-of-state owners are common on inherited property and remote closing is routine.
Can I Use My Own Inspector?
Please do, and send us what they find. A report that shows the fire stayed contained moves our number upward.