Use A Commercial Inspection To Assess The Damage After A Fire At Your Business

A fire or other natural disaster is every business owner's worst nightmare. If your commercial building has sustained damage in a fire, you will want to get the situation taken care of so you can reopen for business as soon as possible. That said, this is not a process you want to rush. You want to make sure you find every last bit of damage inside the building before you report it to your insurance company and certainly before the repair work begins. To that end, here's how a professional in commercial inspections can help you find hidden damage to your building and begin the process of getting back on track.

Check the Structural Integrity of the Building

When a wall catches on fire, you are going to have to look into more than just replacing the wallpaper or paint job. It's quite possible that damage from the flames has affected a retaining wall or another critical structure to the overall stability of the building. Steel in particular is good at conducting heat, and the steel in your building may have allowed this heat to spread beyond just the wall that caught fire. A professional inspection will check your building inside and out to find all sources of damage.

Your Roof Could Be Compromised in More Ways Than One

Everyone knows that heat rises, and this means your roof might have sustained damage, even if the flames didn't break out up there. It's possible that excess heat has damaged your insulation or caused some of your roof tiles to become brittle from underneath. You don't want to find out your roof has been weakened the hard way, like after the next major storm blows roof tiles off of your building.

Your roof could also be compromised, not just from the fire, but from the treatment used to put the fire out. If firefighters doused your building with water in order to control the situation, you may have lingering water on your roof that could soon turn to mold or rot. In fact, your entire building should be checked by a professional to make sure that water is not causing issues from top to bottom.

Hire Your Own Inspector

When you contact your insurance company, they will likely send out an adjuster to assess the situation. But you should pay your own commercial inspector so that you have a better idea of what's coming and so you can possibly push back against your insurance company if it seems they are not willing to cover all of the damage. Talk to a professional in commercial inspections today to get started.