It’s good if you’ve never had to reconstruct your house after a fire incident but, it isn’t something recommendable. When any section of your house catches fire, you’ll be asking yourself endless questions: Where is my family going to live? How long does it take to rebuild a house after a fire? How does the cleanup and rebuilding process work?

Add the emotional discomfort of seeing your precious home on fire, the financial demands involved in getting your life up and running again and that smell of burnt wood that follows you everywhere. But worry no more; here are some suggestions that may guide you.

Small Fires

A small fire, such as that in your kitchen, may only require extensive cleaning and a few simple repairs. Hot water, elbow grease, soap and a number of scrubbing sponges can clean up the mess and help you assess the damage underneath. After a good cleaning, you may realize that the flooring, countertops, cabinetry have scars and scuffs, and needs to be repaired or replaced.

In this case, a certified remodeling contractor will remove the damaged section and replace it with a matching piece, so it will be difficult to tell there ever was a fire. With a small fire, cleaning, demolition and reconstruction will take a very short time – perhaps less than a day.

Medium fires

Large fires that don’t cause extensive damage still cause problems that will need repair. A fire in your living room may cause much damage to walls, flooring, furniture and other possessions. Repair options and time largely depends on the extent of the damage. Therefore, speak to your remodeling contractor for details.

A good cleaning and repainting can do away with smoke or soot damage. However, larger damages such as burnt internal wiring in your house will require a licensed electrician to find the source of the problem and fix it. Fire damage from extinguishing efforts will usually require total replacement of the drywall. This exercise involves removal and re-installation of the wallboards, but for a small area, it shouldn’t take more than two days.

Large fires

The cost of rebuilding will be correspondingly large when the fire is large enough to cause major damage. No matter what the original cause of the fire may be, if it spread to other rooms and burned for a long period of time, it will require many days of extensive clean up to assess the damage and determine the course of repairs. Walls, floors and other structural elements are built brand new.

For small houses, the rebuilding process can last for about three weeks.