A fire that started on a balcony grew into complete guts for two units, with several more affected by smoke damage.
On projects like these the work has to be planned around the people still living there. How the construction affects the community and the adjacent units drives the schedule: safety for both our crews and the residents, noise, working hours, dumpster placement and cleanliness are all decided up front rather than left to sort themselves out.
The units without visible fire damage carried the subtler risk. That scope could easily have been brushed over precisely because there was nothing obvious to see.
For all of the non-gutted units, we prioritised turning them back over to the community so residents could move back in. Testing by our experts determined that multiple units needed to be smoke cleaned, carpet replaced, repainted, new insulation installed, and some finish hardware replaced. All of this was covered under the insurance scope.
At the gutted units, once smoke encapsulation and frame repairs were complete, we replaced all mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems with better systems that are now up to code. The roof over these units was replaced, and all party walls were brought up to meet the required fire resistance ratings.
We worked with the community every step of the way to make sure the new finishes were approved and selected by them, and were exactly what they wanted - cabinets, doors, trim, hardware, fixtures, flooring and much more.
Residents in the lightly affected units were back in their homes rather than waiting on the whole building, and the hidden smoke damage in those units was found and repaired instead of being lived with. The two gutted units came back with new systems that meet current code, a new roof and party walls carrying their full fire resistance rating, finished throughout in the selections the community chose.
