Home · Costs & Insurance
Troy answers the cost question with a structure before it answers with a number: two scopes. The cleaning scope covers soot, smoke, odor, and contents; the structural scope covers repair and rebuild, and local operators quote them as separate documents because different crews, facilities, and pricing logic stand behind each. Against that structure, the published brackets are: smoke only events in the low thousands, contained fires with real contents volume in the mid thousands and above, and structural losses priced from an itemized rebuild scope rather than any range. Winter adds a line southern markets never see, the cost of keeping the structure heated, or formally drained, while it is dried and rebuilt. Fire itself is a named peril, so the claim argument is about scope and price, conducted between two written estimates, yours and the adjuster's.
Do not look for a single Troy total; the market does not write one. Document one prices cleaning: residue method by room, ducts and odor sources, and the contents inventory with its packout. Document two prices structure: repair and rebuild, phased against Michigan code, Oakland County permitting, and the heating season. Published guides supply the brackets each document is judged against, low thousands where smoke is the whole event, mid thousands and above where burning and contents combine, and itemized pricing wherever structure is involved. January adds its own line to document two: heat, maintained or formally drained, for a structure that cannot be left to freeze while it is dried and rebuilt. A phone total that skips both documents is skipping the market's entire method.
| Job | Typical range | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Document one opener: securing the structure | $400 to $1,200 | Board-up measured against openings and weather, photographed as installed. In winter this line also carries the first night's heat decision. |
| Document one: smoke event cleaning, no burning | Low thousands, by rooms and surfaces | Residue tested before any wet method; the heating system stays off until its ducts are cleared to run. |
| Document one: contents inventory, packout, cleaning | Priced from the inventory | Every item photographed and classed. This document doubles as the contents claim, which is why it is kept separate. |
| Document one: contained fire cleaning | Mid thousands and above | The full smoke path is the unit of pricing: origin room, ducts, stairwells, and every room the smoke visited. |
| Document two: repair and rebuild | Priced from an itemized scope | Phases, inspection points, and the winter heat plan stated in the scope itself, not in a follow-up conversation. |
Judge each document against its own bracket and its own evidence. A Troy estimate that merges cleaning and structure into one figure has departed from local practice, and the departure, not the figure, is the first thing to question.
The two document habit pays its rent at claim time. Adjusters estimate in lines; a Troy file that already arrives in lines, cleaning here, contents there, structure in its own document, can be reconciled line by line instead of argued total against total. Deductibles at $500 to $2,500 sit small against most fire scopes. What the file needs from you is paper discipline: the department's timeline, board-up photographs, receipts from the first night onward for the loss of use claim, and, in a winter loss, the heating and drying records that prove the freeze clock was worked as seriously as the mold clock.
Prefer to talk later? Leave your details and an independent local pro will call you back. No charge to you, no obligation.
Big Beaver Fire Restoration is a free referral service. Submitting this form connects you with independent local contractors who provide the work.