Team Building

 Share

For those having to rebuild after last October’s fires, homebuilder Joe Gallagher suggests using the experts and resources around you.

By Stephanie Sweat

(page 1 of 2)

Joe Gallagher remembers watching a cluster of houses burn on a Monday afternoon last October. He had just been evacuated from Poway as the Witch Creek fire moved closer and closer to his neighborhood, and like many San Diegans, he was forced to watch and wait. Unlike other viewers, however, Gallagher evaluated news footage with the eye of a skilled builder and the empathy of someone who had been through it before.

“The homes were burning even though there wasn’t physical evidence of a fire,” says Gallagher, a customhome builder and president of MSK Development Group in North County. “We had houses that looked fine, but embers were burning through the vents and open tail eaves, and then they smoldered and caught hours later.”

In total, 15 of his neighbors lost houses, and many other homes, including his own, suffered significant damage. “We saw on TV several homes in our neighborhood burn,” he says.

Just weeks after dealing with smoke damage and making his home livable again, Gallagher went back to doing what he does best—building homes for other people. With more than 30 years of experience in the building industry, he is the developer or joint-venture managing partner in residential and commercial real estate projects currently valued in excess of $275 million. His projects include custom-home infill projects in Carls bad and Oceanside’s Fire Mountain and a 65-home subdivision on 327 acres adjacent to San Diego Country Estates in Ramona.

Despite his successes, Gallagher says the personal interactions are what he values most in his job—and crises such as the recent fires make these interactions even more important. In 1996, he was involved in the rebuilding of a home destroyed by the Harmony Grove fire in Carlsbad. And after the Cedar fire in 2003, he purchased two burnedout lots and rebuilt them with custom homes.

Now, after the series of deadly fires in October left many San Diegans homeless, he offers his advice and insight for those having to rebuild.

“After having gone through these huge fires in the past, insurance companies now use a whole different procedure,” says Gallagher, whose first advice is for homeowners to file claims directly with their insurance agencies. “This time around, rather than waiting for homeowners to notify them, the agents were contacting clients within 24 to 48 hours.”

Insurance companies typically assemble catastrophe teams composed of agents from multiple offices who travel to the location of the devastation and assist with handling claims and organizing prop - erty cleanup. With the paperwork in place, the next step can be just as daunting: avoiding scams and finding a trustworthy contractor. Insurers can help with this as well.

“Typically, insurance companies will have lists of contractors that meet certain requirements. They can’t recommend companies, but if you ask them, they will give you a list of qualified contractors they feel comfortable with,” Gallagher says.

Homeowner associations are another resource.

“Homes that were at least 40 feet from the edge of a slope didn’t burn, while homes that were only 20 feet back did,” Gallagher says. He adds that while many homes had fire-resistant roofs, the eaves and materials underneath them proved to be detrimental.

“In this fire in particular, homeowner associations are directly involved. And they’re doing their part by taking a proactive role in trying to solicit from qualified build ers,” Gallagher says. “They are contacting the BIA [Building Industry Association] and experts in the field to come in and evaluate the contractors that are proposing to do work.”

Municipal codes and CC&Rs (cov - enants, codes and restrictions established by homeowner associations) from specific communities govern how and what people can build. In other cases, however, homeowners can turn the disaster into an opportunity to build their dream home.

“For the most part, in the tract developments that were hit, people came in and bought a home that pre-existed or was part of a master development, so their options were very limited,” Gallagher says. “Now, those homeowners have the full breadth of what and how they want to build.”

The one option San Diegans cannot ignore is fire prevention. Setbacks— how far a home is built from surrounding vegetation—and roofs are two areas of major concern.

“Homes that were at least 40 feet from the edge of a slope didn’t burn, while homes that were only 20 feet back did,” Gallagher says. He adds that while many homes had fire-resistant roofs, the eaves and materials underneath them proved to be detrimental, catching embers and leading to the home’s destruction. Building a boxed or stucco eave, Gallagher suggests, will help make any home fire resistant.

There is another side to the rebuilding process. While insurance companies and contractors guide much of the physical rebuilding, individuals and families are left to deal with the emotional impact of losing their homes.

“After a fire, there’s a grief period homeowners have to go through,” says Gallagher. “Once they go through that, the typical response is ‘We want to build right away, and we want the same home we had.’ ” Unfortunately, he says, in the end it becomes a numbers game dictated by insurance companies, based on the amount they approve for each claim. In his experience, it can take 18 months to two years before a house is fully rebuilt, with the first four to six months solely devoted to designing the home and securing building permits.

“The faster you are able to give direction to an architect or a builder, the faster you can get the process going,” he says. And the faster life can return to normal.