What smoke and fire damage cleanup costs in Washington

The ranges, for planning

These are typical Washington figures for professional cleanup, meaning soot and smoke residue removal, HVAC and contents handling, and odor treatment. Repairs to anything that burned are separate and come after.

• Contained stovetop or oven fire, smoke in the kitchen and adjacent rooms: roughly $2,000 to $6,000 for cleaning and odor work. Add cabinet, hood and drywall repair and a modest kitchen fire commonly totals $5,000 to $20,000.
• Furnace puff-back (oily soot through the ducts into every room): roughly $3,000 to $10,000 depending on house size, because the soot is distributed everywhere the ducts go and is greasy and hard to lift.
• Whole-house smoke from a fire in one room: roughly $6,000 to $25,000 for cleaning, contents and odor, before rebuilding the room that burned.
• Smoke from a neighbor's fire or a nearby structure fire: roughly $1,500 to $8,000, mostly cleaning, textiles and HVAC.
• Wildfire smoke after a bad week: roughly $1,000 to $5,000 for duct cleaning, HEPA air scrubbing, textile cleaning and surface wiping; higher if the house was open or the smoke was heavy for days.
• Structure fire with significant burn damage: cleanup and contents alone can run $15,000 to $50,000 or more, with the structural rebuild priced separately and usually larger.

Every number above moves with the factors in the next section. Your estimate is built from measurements of your house.

How the estimate is built

Fire and smoke estimates in Washington are written in Xactimate, the line-item database nearly every carrier prices claims against. The lines group into:

Emergency response. Board-up and tarping if the fire or the fire department opened the house, HEPA air scrubbers, protection of floors and traffic paths, and extraction and drying if water was used to put the fire out. This starts the same day because soot is acidic and water grows mold.

Cleaning, by surface. Ceilings, walls, cabinets, fixtures, floors and glass are priced per square or linear foot, with different rates for light, medium and heavy soot and for the type of smoke. Protein smoke from a kitchen fire is nearly invisible and bonds to everything; oily soot from a puff-back or a synthetic fire smears; dry soot from burning wood and paper brushes off more easily. The cleaning chemistry and the labor differ for each.

HVAC. Duct cleaning, filter replacement, cleaning the blower and coil, and in heavy cases sealing or replacing flex duct that cannot be cleaned.

Contents. Each item in the smoke path is cleaned on site, packed out for cleaning at a facility, or listed as non-salvageable. Textiles, electronics and upholstery have their own processes. The non-salvageable inventory becomes your contents claim.

Odor treatment. Thermal fogging, hydroxyl or ozone treatment in the sealed house, and sealing of framing and subfloor that cannot be fully cleaned. Always after cleaning, never instead of it.

Documentation. Room-by-room photos, the smoke map, moisture readings if water was involved, and the inventory. Small line, large consequence: it is what the adjuster approves against.

What moves the number

How far the smoke went. The single biggest factor. A closed door, or a furnace that was off, can keep a fire's smoke in one room. An open floor plan or a running blower puts it in every room and the ducts.

Type of smoke. Protein (kitchen) and oily (puff-back, plastics) residues cost more to remove than dry soot from wood.

Time. Soot residue etches chrome and discolors plastics within hours, stains grout, marble and paint within days, and sets into fabrics within a week or two. The same house cleaned on day two costs less than on day ten, and more of the contents survive.

Water. If the fire department put water on it, add extraction, drying equipment and the removal of what will not dry. The water portion is often as large as the smoke portion.

Contents volume. A full garage or a packed home office drives the contents line.

Season. During wildfire smoke weeks and the holiday cooking season, every crew in the region is busy. Database prices do not change, but response times do.

What insurance pays

Fire and the smoke from a sudden fire are covered perils under essentially every Washington homeowners policy, including cleaning, contents, odor work, temporary housing while the house is uninhabitable, and the rebuild. On a covered claim the restoration contractor bills the insurer directly for the approved scope and you pay your deductible exactly as your policy states it; no contractor in Washington may legally waive it.

The edges to know:

• Smoke from a neighbor's fire: usually covered by your own policy first; your carrier may recover from theirs.
• Puff-backs: usually covered as a sudden event; a furnace that has been puffing for months may be treated as maintenance.
• Wildfire smoke that drifted in over days: carrier-specific. Some cover it as smoke damage, some exclude it as gradual or as pollution. Ask before you assume.
• Cleaning you did yourself: carriers reimburse documented professional work; your own labor and a weekend of scrubbing generally are not reimbursed, and wet-wiping soot often makes the professional job larger.

For the claim mechanics, see the fire claim timeline and replacement cost versus actual cash value, which decides how contents are paid.

How to keep the cost down

1. Turn the HVAC off the moment the fire is out. Stops smoke distribution and saves the ducts.
2. Call the same day. Early HEPA scrubbing and dry cleaning of vulnerable surfaces stops the etching and staining that drive replacement costs.
3. Do not wet-wipe or paint over soot. Both turn a cleaning line into a replacement line.
4. Photograph before anything moves, and do not throw anything away uninventoried.
5. Keep the receipts. Temporary housing, meals and basics are usually reimbursable.

Getting a real number

Call (844) 543-5757 or text photos of the rooms. Dispatch routes a Washington-registered fire restoration crew across King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties; the crew maps the smoke, writes the estimate in your carrier's format and, on covered claims, sends it straight to your adjuster. The service pages describe each stage: smoke and soot cleanup, odor removal, puff-back and furnace soot cleanup, wildfire smoke cleanup and contents and textile restoration.