Fire can weaken a house without leaving much to see from the room below. Wood chars and loses section, metal plates and steel soften with heat, and masonry and concrete can crack or flake. A scope written from a walk-through cannot always tell you how much strength is left. That is the question an engineer answers, and sometimes the answer saves framing that looked lost.
Houses here also differ a lot under the drywall. An older Craftsman may have balloon framing that lets fire run up the wall cavities, while newer houses have roof trusses and engineered floor joists whose thin parts have little to spare. Brick chimneys and daylight basement walls add their own questions. Not every fire needs an engineer, so start by looking for the signs.
The signs you need one
- Charred framing. Rafters, joists, studs, beams or headers with deep char or pieces burned away.
- Anything sagging or moving. A roofline or floor with a new dip, a bounce that was not there before, or doors that suddenly stick. Stay out from under it.
- Heat at the trusses or engineered joists. Truss makers' guidance is to inspect both the plates and the wood. Discolored plates, plates working loose and char around them are the warning signs, because a charred member can lose its grip on the plate.
- Cracked or leaning masonry and concrete. A cracked chimney, a foundation wall with new cracks, or concrete that has flaked off in sheets near the fire.
- Bent or discolored steel. Beams, posts or connections near the hottest part of the fire.
- Water weight. Soaked plaster and insulation can load a ceiling that has already been heated.
- Someone official asks. The fire department or a building inspector has posted the house, or the permit counter wants an evaluation. Seattle's permit page lists any work on load-bearing supports among the jobs that need a permit, and the other cities and counties have their own processes.
- A dispute. Your contractor and adjuster disagree about whether framing stays, or the question has become repair or rebuild.
You probably do not need one for smoke and soot alone, for char limited to trim and finishes, or for a small kitchen fire that never reached the framing. Fire damage assessment and estimates explains how an estimator sorts that out.
Step by step: what you can do yourself
The evaluation is not a DIY job, but getting ready for it is. Done well, this can shorten the first visit and head off a second one.
- Stay out until the house is released. Ask the fire department whether you may enter, and which parts. Do not poke or pull at charred members, and do not cut or shore anything yourself.
- Protect the house. Get windows and the roof covered. Emergency board-up keeps rain off framing the engineer needs to read. Tell whoever does it not to clear the debris around damaged framing.
- Photograph from safe spots, and keep a dated log of anything that seems to be moving, such as a door that sticks or a crack that grows.
- Gather the paperwork. Find plans, old permits, remodel records and pre-fire photos, along with the policy, the claim number and the fire department's incident number.
- Call your adjuster first. Ask whether the insurer is sending its own engineer, whether your policy will pay for yours and what the adjuster needs from the report. Follow up by email.
- Find two or three candidates. Ask your contractor, your building department or the adjuster for names, and ask each one about fire experience.
- Check the license. The state Department of Licensing's lookup shows it, and the engineers' board posts disciplinary actions. Since June 11, 2026, the law requires the structural engineer license for structural work on defined significant structures. A typical house is not named on that list, so ask about experience as well as the title.
- Get a written proposal. It should say what will be inspected, how many visits are included, what has to be opened up, what you will receive, the fee and the dates. Ask whether repair details and permit drawings are included or extra, and whether the engineer will talk to your adjuster.
- Settle asbestos before anything is opened. Opening up old finishes can disturb asbestos. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency says to survey before renovation, and it covers all four counties.
- Walk the house with the engineer and your contractor. Have them agree on what will be opened and who will open it. A second visit after demolition is common.
What a good report covers
- The visit: dates, who attended, and what could and could not be seen.
- The damage, by area, with photos tied to a plan or sketch.
- A finding for each member or assembly: keep and clean, reinforce, or replace. Damaged trusses can sometimes be repaired in place with an engineered design, for example by sistering a lightly charred chord, while replacement may make more sense when many members are affected.
- Anything unsafe now: where temporary shoring is needed, before more work happens.
- Repair details, or a clear statement that drawings will follow, with calculations if the permit office needs them.
- Open items: what cannot be decided until the finishes come off.
- A signature and seal from a Washington-licensed engineer.
It will not usually address smoke, wiring, the cause of the fire or the cost of repairs. Those belong to your contractor's scope, an electrician and the fire investigator.
How it fits the claim
An engineer's report does not decide coverage. Your policy does that. What the report does is replace opinions about framing with findings your adjuster and your contractor can both price.
- Send it to everyone who needs it: your adjuster, your contractor and the building department. Ask your contractor to update the scope line by line from the findings.
- Keep the three kinds of cost apart. Like-for-like repair, code-required upgrades and your own upgrades are paid differently, and what a fire rebuild costs and who pays explains how. Ask the engineer to say which repairs restore what was there and which the code requires.
- Ask for the insurer's report. Under WAC 284-30-340, in the rules that took effect in October 2026, your claim file includes engineer reports, and you can request it. The same rules make insurers responsible for the accuracy of evaluations made on their behalf. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice.
- If two reports disagree, ask the engineers to talk to each other directly before anyone argues about money. Working with your adjuster on a rebuild covers supplements, and our guide to the adjuster's first walk-through covers the visit itself.
- Ask about earthquakes while the walls are open. Puget Sound is earthquake country, so ask what connections to the foundation or chimney could be improved. Unless the code requires it, that is usually your own upgrade, but the walls may never be this easy to reach again.
What it costs
These are typical Puget Sound ranges, not quotes. Fees vary with the size of the house, how much is damaged and how quickly you need it.
- Site visit and a short letter: commonly $500 to $1,500.
- Full written evaluation with photos and recommendations: commonly $1,500 to $5,000.
- Repair drawings and calculations for a permit: commonly $2,500 to $10,000 or more.
- Temporary shoring by a contractor: commonly from several hundred dollars to several thousand.
- Opening up finishes for inspection: usually billed by your contractor as part of the scope.
- Asbestos survey by a certified inspector: commonly a few hundred dollars and up.
Whether your policy pays the engineer's fee depends on the policy and on why the engineer was hired, so get the answer in writing. For restoration work, the terms are $0 upfront on covered claims - insurer billed directly - deductible applies.
When to call a professional right away
Keep people out and call the same day when:
- A roof, ceiling or floor is sagging or making noise, or a wall has moved. Call 911 if it could fall on a neighbor or the street.
- A chimney is leaning or shedding brick.
- Rain is getting into exposed framing, which needs a tarp today. Emergency board-up handles that.
- You are being asked to sign a demolition or rebuild decision before anyone has evaluated the structure.
Estimators work across King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties and will say so plainly when your scope needs an engineer. Call (425) 279-7097.
