Kitchen fire claim with State Farm wrapped up at $84k after starting at a $19k offer. Here's the timeline and what actually moved the number

Posting this because i spent weeks reading fire damage threads here while we were in the middle of this and the timeline information was really hard to find. Hoping this helps the next person. Quick context. We are in central Indiana, 1990s build 2,400 sqft single family, State Farm HO-3 policy with $325k dwelling coverage and a $2,500 deductible. Fire started January 19th from a faulty range hood transformer (confirmed by fire marshal), contained to the kitchen but smoke went through the entire first floor and HVAC. Nobody hurt, we got the dog out, the fire department had it down in 22 minutes.

State Farm sent out their adjuster on day 4. He spent about 90 minutes walking the kitchen, family room, and HVAC closet. His initial scope: replace the range, hood, two upper cabinets, four feet of drywall, repaint the kitchen and family room, deep clean the ductwork. Estimate $19,400 minus deductible. He kept saying things like "the smoke smell will dissipate in a few weeks" and "the cabinet doors can be wiped down." We had carbon residue on the inside of cabinets across the entire first floor and you could smell smoke on the second floor furniture three days after the fire.

We hired a public adjuster on day 8 after talking to a friend who is a property restoration contractor. The PA brought in a certified IICRC fire and smoke restoration specialist to do a proper assessment. That assessment came back with: all kitchen cabinetry needs replacement (smoke penetration into wood grain cannot be cleaned), all flooring within smoke spread radius needs replacement (subfloor absorbs combustion byproducts), every upholstered piece on the first floor needs professional ozone treatment or replacement, all HVAC ductwork needs replacement not just cleaning, electronics on the first floor need professional testing for soot infiltration. The PA submitted a 62 page supplement.

State Farm assigned a senior adjuster who came back out. We negotiated for about three weeks. They eventually agreed to the full kitchen rebuild, flooring throughout the first floor, HVAC duct replacement, ozone treatment for furniture, and dwelling content replacement at ACV (we had ACV not RCV which i would change in a heartbeat). Final settlement was $84,300 plus a separate $12,400 ALE (additional living expense) check for the 7 weeks we were displaced. PA took 10% of the supplement only which worked out to about $6,500. Net to us was about $77,800 plus the ALE. If your adjuster is telling you smoke smell "dissipates" or cabinet doors "wipe down" you are being lowballed.