Most fire-restoration disputes we get pulled into aren't about whether the cleaning happened. They're about whether the right sub did it. The contents team thinks they're cleaning a built-in cabinet because it has dishes in it. The structural sub thinks they're cleaning a kitchen island because it's affixed. Both bill for it. The adjuster bounces both line items. The GC pays for one out of pocket. Two weeks of back-and-forth nobody had budgeted.
There's a cleaner version of this. It starts with a scope split that's written down before anyone mobilizes, in language the adjuster has seen before. This article is how we draw the line on our jobs and how we'd encourage your contents partner to draw theirs.
The default split, in plain language
The IICRC framework — S700 for structural, S540 for trauma, S520 for mold, and the firm-by-firm conventions on contents — gives you the bones. In practice across the carriers we see most in Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington, the working split is:
- Anything bolted, screwed, plumbed, wired, or built into the structure is structural. That's our scope. Framing, drywall, sheathing, ductwork, hard cabinetry, built-in shelving, panels, conduit, fixed appliances.
- Anything that moves out of the structure to be cleaned, packed, or pack-out-and-stored is contents. That's the contents team's scope. Furniture, clothing, dishware, electronics, soft goods, art, kids' toys, the kitchenaid mixer on the counter.
- Edge cases — built-in appliances, affixed art, integrated audio, custom millwork that's both structural and finish — get listed by line item in the kickoff packet with the responsible party named.
The trick isn't the rule. It's the edge cases. Every fire job has 6 to 10 of them, and they're where double-bills happen.
The kickoff walk that prevents the dispute
Before either crew mobilizes, the GC, the contents lead, and our lead walk the structure with a printed scope sheet. Each edge-case item gets a check mark next to one of: structural, contents, or out-of-scope. The sheet gets photographed and emailed to all three parties plus the adjuster. Total time on site is usually 35 to 50 minutes. It has paid for itself on every job we've ever done it on.
What lands on the sheet most often:
- Built-in refrigerators and ovens: structural shell, contents interior. We clean the cabinet face and ductwork; they clean what was on the racks.
- Custom kitchen islands with seating: structural if framed-in, contents if free-standing. Photo the underside before the call.
- Pantries: shelving structural, food contents (and usually disposed, not cleaned).
- Closets with built-in organizers: organizer structural, garments contents.
- Garage workshops: bench structural, tools and supplies contents. Tool chests on wheels are contents even though they weigh 400 pounds.
- Hearths and mantels: structural. Mantel decor is contents.
- Wall-mounted TVs and audio: mount is structural, equipment is contents. We don't clean electronics. Ever.
Why dry ice changes the conversation
On a wet-wash or chemical-sponge job, contents and structural are different cleaning methods anyway, so the scope split is also a method split — the line draws itself. Dry ice is non-conductive, dry, and won't damage cabinet finishes or built-in electronics housings, which means we could technically clean a lot more than our scope says. That's exactly when scope discipline matters most. We don't clean inside a built-in oven even though the dry ice could handle the soot, because the rack and the broiler pan are contents and the contents team is going to bill that line. We clean the cabinet face. We stop at the door.
The same discipline applies in reverse. If a contents tech is wiping soot off a wall behind the dresser they pulled out, that's a problem. The wall is ours and we're charging the carrier for it. Two bills hit the file. The adjuster catches it. The GC writes a check.
Writing the line items so the adjuster doesn't bounce them
Xactimate has a line item for almost everything, but the carrier's adjuster is reading the file for two things: did the work happen, and does it appear once. We write our line items room-by-room with the scope element first and the substrate second — 'Soot removal – kitchen ceiling and crown molding, dry ice method' is unambiguous. 'General fire cleaning' invites questions and substitutions.
We also reference the contents team's scope by firm name in our packet, with a line that reads: 'Contents cleaning of kitchen contents, including built-in oven interior racks, performed by [contents firm] under separate scope.' That single sentence in the file has resolved more first-pass adjuster questions than any other documentation change we've made in five years.
When the split breaks down
Two cases. Whole-room pack-outs where contents leave the structure entirely, and the structural sub is cleaning the empty shell — clean split, no disputes. And tiny jobs where there's no real contents component and one crew handles both — also fine, but we say so in writing up front so the adjuster doesn't expect a contents invoice that isn't coming.
The case that breaks: partial pack-outs where some contents stay in place under tarps while structural work happens around them. Our standing rule is the contents team owns anything under their tarps, and the GC arbitrates anything that ends up uncovered. It's not perfect but it keeps the bills clean.
If your firm is running two or three fire jobs at a time and the scope arguments are eating your PM's week, the kickoff packet is the cheapest fix on the menu.
Tell us your firm name and the carrier you see most often. We'll send the kickoff scope sheet, sample line items, and the contents-handoff template we use on every job.
Request a Sample Kickoff Packet