Services · DFW
Fire and smoke damage restoration for DFW homes and businesses
The full job: assessing what the fire and heat did to the structure, cleaning smoke residue from every surface it reached, and planning a rebuild that your insurer can approve. This is the work we built the company on.
Fire damage is three kinds of damage
Heat damage is the obvious part: charred framing, buckled drywall, melted fixtures. Smoke damage is the part people underestimate: residue and odor travel through the HVAC system and settle in rooms the fire never reached, sometimes on a different floor. Water damage from the fire department's hoses soaks the parts of the building the fire missed. Restoring the property means dealing with all three at once, in the right order, or one undoes the other.
Assessment first
Before anything is cleaned or demolished we walk every room with a camera, a moisture meter and a residue test kit. Smoke residue is not one thing. Dry smoke from fast, hot fires leaves a powdery residue that wipes away. Wet smoke from smoldering, low-oxygen fires leaves a sticky, smeary film that spreads if you wipe it. Protein residue from kitchen fires is nearly invisible and smells terrible. Fuel-oil soot from furnace puff-backs is different again. Each is cleaned a different way, and using the wrong method sets the stain permanently. The assessment tells us which you have, room by room.
Structural cleaning
- Dry-sponge and HEPA-vacuum removal of loose soot from ceilings, walls and framing before any wet cleaning.
- Degreasing and wet cleaning with residue-specific products, surface by surface: painted drywall, wood, brick, tile, glass, metal and plastics each get their own approach.
- Media blasting (soda, dry ice) of charred framing and joists where the wood is sound but the surface is burned.
- Sealing of cleaned structural wood with an odor-blocking primer before the walls are closed up.
- Duct cleaning and HVAC decontamination, because a system that ran during the fire is full of soot and will redistribute it the first time it turns on.
Deciding what to save
Not everything should be cleaned. Charred structural members are replaced, not scrubbed. Insulation that has absorbed smoke is removed, not deodorized. Drywall that got wet and then hot is gone. We put these decisions in writing, with photographs, in a scope of work that your adjuster can review line by line. Where something is borderline, we say so and explain the trade-off instead of quietly picking the option that pays more.
Then the rebuild
Once cleaning and drying are verified, reconstruction starts under the same crew and the same project manager. No hand-off to a different company and no second learning curve.
Questions
Asked about fire & smoke damage restoration
The fire was small and only in the kitchen. Do I need all this?
Possibly not, and we will tell you if so. Small kitchen fires are the classic case of protein residue that has traveled through the whole house on the air. The fire is small; the smell is everywhere. The assessment is free and tells you what you are actually dealing with.
Can I stay in the house during the work?
Sometimes, if the fire was contained and we can isolate the work area with containment and negative air. Often not for the first week when the air quality is poorest. We give you a straight answer after the assessment rather than a comfortable one.
Do you handle commercial buildings?
Yes: restaurants, retail, warehouses, offices, churches and multi-family. The approach is the same; the logistics of tenants, business interruption and phased reopening are different, and we plan for them.
How long does it take?
A contained single-room fire with smoke through the house is typically weeks. A structure fire with reconstruction is typically months, and permitting adds to that. We give a written schedule after the assessment and update it whenever it changes.
Related
Usually part of the same job
Soot & Odor Removal
Residue-specific cleaning, HEPA air scrubbing, thermal fogging and ozone or hydroxyl treatment until the smell is actually gone.
Details →Contents Cleaning & Pack-Outs
Inventoried, photographed and packed. Cleaned off-site, stored securely, returned when the property is ready.
Details →Reconstruction & Repairs
One contractor from demolition to final coat of paint. Framing, drywall, electrical and plumbing coordination, finishes.
Details →Fire out. Now what?
Call before you touch anything. We will tell you what to do in the next hour, what not to do, and when a crew can be there. No charge for the call, no obligation for the visit.