Reading: fire and smoke problems in older Park Hill homes

Old plaster is dense, hard and often worth keeping after smoke. Heat and water change that. A practical way to sort sound walls from ones that need patching or removal.

Old-growth fir and oak woodwork is hard to replace and often cleans up better than people expect. What separates salvageable woodwork from boards that are truly lost.

Old strip flooring often survives soot but reacts slowly to water. How to read cupping and crowning, why drying takes patience, and what to settle before sanding.

Older houses may still have knob-and-tube or early cloth-covered wiring in walls and attics. Heat, water and smoke can damage it in ways no one can see, so clearance comes first.

Chimney fires can crack clay liners and old brick, and they push soot into rooms around a fireplace. A plain guide to inspection, cleanup and the repair choices that follow.

Old double-hung sash, art glass and leaded panels are often among the first things replaced after a fire. Many can be repaired. Here is how to tell, and what to ask before they go.

Some Denver houses carry landmark designation or sit inside a historic district, and exterior changes there can need design review. How to check and how it fits into a claim.

Nearly every older Park Hill house has lead paint somewhere under newer coats. Fire repairs scrape, sand and demolish painted surfaces, so lead-safe practices belong in the plan.

Pebbly, gray-brown or gold attic fill is common in older houses and some of it contains asbestos. After a fire, the attic often needs work, so this has to be sorted out first.

The kind of fire decides the kind of residue, and the age of the house decides what it lands on. Getting both right avoids streaked plaster, clouded shellac and smell that returns.

Radiator systems behave differently from forced air after a fire: no ducts to spread smoke, but frozen pipes, soot-packed fins and a boiler that must be checked before it runs.

An older house rarely has stock replacements for its brick, tile, trim or flooring. Matching is often the hardest part of the claim. How to document, ask and negotiate.

Fire repairs in older homes often have to meet today's code, not the code of 1925. Ordinance or law coverage may pay for that difference, if the policy includes it and limits are enough.

Older Denver lots often put a detached garage on the alley, a short walk from the back porch. A garage fire can scorch siding, crack windows and pull smoke into the house.

Tudor Revival and storybook cottages have steep pitches, cross gables and curved eaves. Tarping and repairing them after a fire is slower and harder than a simple gable roof.

Bungalows with finished upper floors under the roof have knee walls, sloped ceilings and tiny attic pockets. Smoke from a fire downstairs tends to end up there and stay.

Some of the worst-looking damage after a house fire comes from putting it out. Knowing why firefighters do what they do makes the house and the claim easier to sort out.