This one's written for the general contractor running the restoration job, not the homeowner reading about their kitchen fire. If you're a GC who's tried to sub out dry-ice soot removal before and ended up writing the line items yourself, this is the workflow we offer instead.
Most of our restoration work in Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington comes through three or four GCs we've worked with for years. The reason they keep calling — beyond the work itself — is that the documentation packet shows up on the adjuster's desk in the format the carrier already approves, with line items their estimating team doesn't have to retype.
Where we fit in your scope
We're the soot-removal sub. We don't pretend to be the GC, don't talk directly to the homeowner unless you ask us to, and don't bill the insured. We carry our own GL, auto, workers' comp, and pollution coverage, and we'll issue a COI naming your firm as additional insured before mobilization.
Our scope on a typical fire job looks like this:
- Charred framing: carbonized layer removed down to sound wood for the structural engineer to evaluate. Often saves a tear-out the original scope assumed.
- Ductwork: interior and exterior surfaces of HVAC ducting, returns, and trunk lines.
- Mechanical and electrical: panels, conduit, junction boxes, equipment housings — dry, no rinse, no dry-out window before re-energization.
- Concrete and masonry: foundation walls, slab undersides, chimney exteriors. Soot and creosote off without re-sealing.
- Hard finishes worth saving: cabinetry interiors, brick, stone, and millwork the homeowner wants preserved.
We don't do contents cleaning, deodorization, or final wipe-down — those go to your contents team. Clean delineation keeps everyone's scope clean.
The documentation packet
This is the part most GCs tell us is the actual reason they call. Every job, every time, you get the same packet:
- Pre-mobilization scope sheet with IICRC S700 reference, identifying each room/asset and the soot category.
- Time-stamped photo log: representative before, in-progress, and after of each scope element, organized by room.
- Daily field notes from the lead operator: hours, scope progress, deviations, any conditions encountered that weren't in the original scope.
- Xactimate-formatted line items: scope codes, units, and quantities matched to the carrier's estimating platform. Drops into your estimate without rework.
- Completion report signed by the lead, ready to attach to the carrier's file.
We keep a couple of redacted sample packets on file. If you want to see one before booking, ask — we'll send it over so you can show your estimating team what they'll get.
Why adjusters tend to approve the first round
Two reasons, mostly. The line items are written in the carrier's own language — same codes, same units, same scope structure they're already using — so there's nothing to translate. And the photo log proves the scope, which means the adjuster doesn't have to push back to justify the spend internally. We don't write scope in language we hope the carrier accepts; we write it in language the carrier's software already uses.
The other thing that helps: we don't pad. If a room is light smoke residue and a wipe-down would do, we say so in the scope and we don't bid it. GCs who've been burned by subs over-bidding to soak the carrier appreciate the difference, and adjusters notice over time. Both keep the work coming back.
When you need us on site
First 72 hours after release from the fire marshal is the ideal window — soot becomes more acidic and harder to remove the longer it sits, and char penetrates further into porous substrates. We can usually mobilize within 48 hours across western Montana and the Inland Northwest, and we'll hold capacity for contracted GCs on the route.
If the job is too far out for an immediate trip, we can still scope from photos and a walk-through video, write the line items for your estimate, and book the actual cleaning into the next available route window. Most carrier approvals take longer than mobilization does anyway.
What it doesn't replace
It doesn't replace structural drying, deodorization, ozone or hydroxyl, contents cleaning, or final paint. It does replace chemical wash and wire-brushing on framing — which is the slowest, most labor-heavy line in most fire scopes, and the line where dry ice gives back the biggest chunk of the schedule.
If you're running a restoration firm in the region and you're tired of writing your subs' Xactimate line items for them, that's the gap we're built to close.
Tell us your firm name, region, and typical job size. We'll set up a partner file with COI, sample documentation, and route priority.
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