The extent of the damage.
Nine months FFS how bad is the damage? it is not like flood damage that takes time to dry out, you could build a house from start to finish including footings/drains etc in that time, unless you live in a castle? Rick
The fire service were brilliant they arrived in just under 10 minutes after the were called. The firework struck our house at round 7.35 pm, within 5 minutes of impact the fire had took hold of the rear corner of the roof due to the power of the firework burning in our roof void. The house design is known as a Dormer Style Chalet Bungalow with upstairs bedrooms and bathroom with storage cupboards built into the eaves. All the inside of the rafters were insulated with 2" type Celotex Insulation boards as were the eave storage compartments.
The seat of the fire was essentially in the roof rafters and the first 5 or 6 trusses have almost burnt right through. There are two large wooden beams that span the length of the property one on each side that act as supports for the trusses inside the roof itself. These long beams are about a 15" x 4" in profile and one section is very badly charred.
The corners of the roof inside provide built in storage spaces in the eaves and these were packed with storage boxes containing family photographs spanning three generations in addition to hundreds of the wife's books etc. To tackle the fire there was a 3 pronged approach. One fireman on a platform was spraying the roof from the outside where the firework had smashed through the roof tiles. The second fireman went straight up the stairs and at the top is the loft hatch. He deployed a second hose inside the roof / loft. A third fireman entered the rear bedroom to tackle the fire from the inside of the bedroom.
The fire brigade arrived at about 7.50 pm they worked continually until around 10.30 pm by that time they had pulled out all the burning material from the one side of the bedroom and damped it down on. There were four tenders in all and they left at around 11.30 pm coming back every hour or so to check that there was no smoldering or danger of the fire re-starting.
We were not allowed to enter the building due to the build up of toxic smoke until the next morning. Although all the windows were intact they were blackened on the inside throughout the building due to smoke. Our ground floor is concrete covered with Porcelain Floor Tiles throughout the house . In the morning there was standing water on the ground floor some 2-4" deep, all the walls were dripping with condensation. As at yesterday there was still ground water varying between 0.5-1.0" in depth in half of the rooms.
The kitchen ceiling has completely collapsed with a substantial collapse in the lounge. The floor joists in the rear bedroom are damage in one quarter. All of the wife's clothing except underwear was in her rear bedroom - it being essentially a dressing room with a King Sized Water Bed that we have for guests.
Due to the nature of the damage to the roof itself and the effect of flash over the whole roof will have to be removed, I suspect the rear half of the floor joists will also need to be replaced. Our lovely Solid Oak Staircase with matching Oak doors throughout was only fitted two years ago to replace the original open plan stairs. Due to water ingress the staircase and all the doors will like wise need to be replaced.
The doors were around £240 each plus fitting and are a beautifully paneled design. Solid wood material - no egg box design with light oak veneer finish. They are so heavy it is a two man lift to mount them on the hinges. All the ground floor walls will need to be replastered after they house has been dried out with de-humidifiers . Due to the standing water getting into the grouting and seeping between the tiles and the concrete floor if they are not taken up and replaced they will start to come loose when the house has dried out and foot traffic returns.
It will need a new kitchen and the fitted mirrored wardrobes in the rear bedroom will need replacing. The only rooms not badly damaged are the front upstairs bedroom, bathroom, the downstairs front room and downstairs toilet. The conservatory replaced three years ago with a "Warm Roof" design is not damaged at all despite spanning the whole of the rear of the house.
The electrics will need re wiring pretty much throughout and some central heating pipes that run under the bedroom floor will need replacing. The boiler is situated in the lounge behind the fireplace with an electric fire set in a granite faced fireplace. The condensing boiler is a Baxi BBU unit that has a double skinned plastic flue liner. If this has sustained heat damage that's a £1000 job alone.
With Christmas / Winter looming I do not see substantial repair work starting until the end of January. The new roof will need to be a bespoke CAD design even if only half of the timber needs replacing- no doubt another wait between order and arrival.
The house was built in 1978 so is pre-metric in dimensions.
The initial estimate of it being done by Easter has had slippage already and nothing has really been done yet except the sheeting over the hole in the roof and a drain down of the heating etc. Much like car repairs it takes longer to repair a badly damaged building than to build a new one!
