In this series, I am going to share some valuable tips that will help fire restoration practitioners improve their estimating skills and have a better understanding of fire restoration processes so these types of projects can become more profitable and less intimidating.
If there is one area where estimators in the restoration industry tend to have the most difficulty, it’s estimating fire and smoke damage restoration. Having been in the restoration and construction industry for over 43 years, I can’t even count how many times I have heard “full service” restoration contractors say that they don’t do fire work or even want to get involved with fires. This may be due in part because they don’t get the opportunity to do fire restoration projects enough and therefore lack the experience, they had a failed smoke odor remediation job come back to bite them, or when they did get a fire, they couldn’t seem to make it profitable. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure, writing an accurate and profitable estimate on a fire loss can be very challenging, especially if you don’t have a strong background in fire restoration and a good working knowledge of general construction. The good news is that fire restoration can be very profitable if you know what to do and can think outside the box.