My sister-in-law's house caught fire and there was extensive damage. I steered her toward a friend who runs a fire restoration company. I have known this guy for almost 25 years. The work is atrocious. I'm disgusted and ashamed I recommended him.
Here's the problem. Her foyer is tile and she's noticed a crack that runs from one end to the other, and from side to side. He told her it was from the house settling and possibly due to the low lake levels. ?!?!?!?!
My theory is this: from the heat of the fire, the cold of the water, and the soaking that the floor got, the subfloor became saturated and swelled compromising the integrity of the materials. That, and the five and a half foot stack of drywall and flooring they put on it. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks. Respectfully.

Hi Joe,

Ah....the low-lake excuse.....I've never heard of that one. The guy may or may not be a hack, but he obviously thinks she's a dummy!

This tile is the original old tile? If the floor got flooded from the water, the ceramic should have been removed because as you said the subfloor swelled and later shrunk. It may have buckled slightly. Why isn't her old floor in a dump someplace?

Jaz

Thanks Jaz, unfortunately you confirmed my fears. I see a battle on the horizon.

And then there's the issue of a 66" high stack of wallboard! YIKES That could weigh what? What size sheets? Contractors usually use 12 footers, sometimes longer if possible?

Lets see....66" high is 132 sheets +-. at about 2.15 lb. per sq. ft. (I think?) That could be a lot of weight. If 4x12's maybe 17,000 lbs. Even if they cheated and used 4x8's that's about 9,000 lbs.

That's a little more than the reasonable expected load of any wooden floor I've seen. Standard construction codes call for a rating of 40 lb. per sq. ft. live load. The weight was of course spread out but still come out to about 280 lb. sq. ft. for either of my above examples.

Jaz

If the floor was damaged from the fire or excessive water from the firemen then it has to be replaced by the insurance company. Simple as that.