Rebuilding your house after a fire can take weeks or months depending on several factors.
The following guide highlights the average time it takes to rebuild a property after a fire, the factors influencing the fire damage reconstruction time, the steps, timelines, and costs for reconstruction, and the best alternative to rebuilding a fire-damaged home.
Read below to find all the answers.
Factors That Affect How Long Fire Damage Restoration Takes
It takes between two weeks and eight months to rebuild a fire-damaged house, depending on the extent and scope of damage.
Minor repairs that involve a small section of the house can take less than a month to rebuild, while structural damages involving the foundation, walls, and beams take much longer.
Other factors that influence the reconstruction time include:
- Your budget: The average cost to repair a fire-damaged house is between $4 and $7 per square foot. However, rebuilding costs much more and starts at $50 per square foot for partial rebuilds and $150 per square foot for the entire house. Depending on your homeowners’ insurance policy, your insurer may cover partial or full reconstruction costs.
- Insurance claim process: Processing your insurance claim may take time and delay the start of rebuilding. This is why fire restoration experts advise homeowners to call their insurance agent immediately after a fire.
- Contractor availability: Restoring and rebuilding a fire-damaged home requires specialized training and skills that typical house builders may lack — you need to find fire restoration experts. Finding a suitable and reliable team as quickly as possible is key to completing the rebuild on time.
- Legal requirements and processes: There are many legal processes associated with rebuilding a fire-damaged property, including property inspection requirements and acquisition of building permits. Local regulations may require you to conduct multiple inspections throughout the reconstruction process and permits may take a long time to obtain, causing delays.
What Is the Rebuilding Procedure for a Fire-Damaged House?
When rebuilding a house damaged by fire, consider the following steps and timelines to make the process as time-efficient as possible.
- Call your insurance agent: After a house fire, you should call your insurance provider as soon as it is safe to avoid delays in processing claims. You may also find that your policy covers immediate emergency services such as hotel costs. Provide key details, including the time and extent of the fire, along with images and videos of the scene before cleanup and initial assessment.
- Cleanup and initial assessment (1-2 weeks): Whether you’re rebuilding or repairing your fire-damaged home, you have to conduct an assessment of the damage with the help of various experts, including a claims adjuster, structural engineer, and fire restoration expert. These professionals determine whether to rebuild or repair. After assessment, you can begin the cleanup to remove debris and check what to throw away after smoke damage.
- Insurance claim processing and financial planning (1-3 weeks): For your insurance provider to reimburse you for your loss, you need to file a claim, document your losses, provide them to the insurer, and work with your provider to determine what you will be compensated for. You’ll also need to sort out your budget and finances in this phase.
- Reconstruction design and planning (1-3+ weeks): Here, homeowners have to work with architects and structural engineers to design plans for the new project. The timeline required here varies significantly based on the complexity of the project.
- Acquisition of local building permits (1-3+ weeks): Once you’ve completed the design phase, the next step is obtaining approval from relevant local authorities. Depending on your region’s specific requirements, it may take a week or months to receive the building licenses and permits you need.
- Actual reconstruction (3-12+) weeks: After receiving approval, you can start the rebuilding process. On average, it takes one to three months to rebuild depending on the project’s size and complexity, scope and methods of construction, the construction team’s efficiency, availability of materials, and weather conditions. As a result, some rebuilding projects take a year or more to complete.
- Final inspection and moving in (1+ week): Once your home is ready, a final inspection is required to determine whether it complies with local building regulations. If the home is approved, you can move back in — this entire process takes about a week.
Alternatives to Rebuilding a Fire-Damaged House
There’s no doubt that rebuilding your house after a fire is expensive, time-consuming, and draining.
For this reason, you may want to consider the following alternative solutions to fire-damaged property:
- Sell as is to cash house buyers (investors and companies). This is considered the most convenient solution for homeowners with fire-damaged homes.
- Demolish the structure and sell the vacant land.
- Use your insurance payout to buy new property or rent temporarily. If your house isn’t insured, you may avail of government assistance for fire victims.
- Rebuild to a smaller structure to save on reconstruction costs.
- Repurpose the property for commercial and non-residential use (if local zoning laws allow it).
Should You Rebuild or Sell a Fire-Damaged House As Is?
For most owners of fire-damaged homes, selling the property as is may be much more convenient and less stressful than rebuilding or repairing it.
If you feel that you don’t have the time or money to manage the restoration process, you don’t have to do it. Neither do you have to abandon your house to further deteriorate and lose even more value.
We have detailed articles on how to sell a house after a fire and how to price a fire-damaged house.
But below, we will focus on the easiest, quickest, and most convenient way to sell a burned home — selling it as is and for cash to a real estate investor.
Unlike most buyers, real estate investors look for damaged properties to buy, repair and resell or use as a rental.
Most home buyers need a mortgage to purchase a property. This means that they depend on the lender’s decision whether or not to issue a loan on a house.
Traditional lenders, such as banks, avoid issuing loans on damaged properties, so buyers have to request sellers repair properties before closing.
Also, lenders demand buyers to order an official appraisal, which may take more than a week to complete.
Unlike most buyers, real estate investors don’t use traditional lenders — they purchase properties for cash. As a result, they can buy any damaged house fast and easily.
A real estate investor won’t request you to do any repairs or cleanup — they will buy your property as is. However, you have to disclose fire damage when selling a house.
Through our website, you can get access to a nationwide network of investors who buy fire-damaged property fast and for cash.
By selling to one of our investors, you will:
- have a fast and easy transaction
- not have to repair your property
- have your closing costs paid by the investor
- avoid real estate agent commission fees, as you won’t have to hire an agent
- get a cash sale without lenders involved
- not have to wait for an appraisal report
Request a cash offer now. Your request will be sent to multiple investors so that you can get several offers and choose the best one.
