Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration

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Like the boy that cried wolf, some fire professionals have been hearing about the first-ever internationally accredited fire restoration standard for a long time – or what feels like a long time – and a yeah, call me when it’s done reaction is understandable. Yet it seems a larger group, a majority of fire damage contractors, aren’t even aware development is underway.

Question: If you hired a restoration firm and paid them to restore your structure and contents, would you expect them to clean strictly for appearance, or should the safety and health of workers and your family be the primary concern?

Odor removal in general can be one of the trickier elements to any restoration project. When it comes to large loss, removing the smoke odor (for example) from a warehouse the size of Ikea is no easy feat. It takes a knowledgeable restoration company and the right equipment to get the job done the right way, so there is no residual odor – and the odor doesn’t return later.

In the restoration industry, we talk about catastrophe loss quite often. In fact, R&R is launching a conference dedicated to educating restorers on handling CAT claims. However, there is a common misconception when it comes to disaster restoration: that traveling is required. 

Strange, how a fire can ignite from the most unlikely source; especially when that source is water related. A condo in an affluent community drew the unlucky straw of being located next to a pump station that ran the lawn sprinkler for six homes.

According to CoreLogic© hazard risk analysis, a total of 86,242 homes in Ventura and Los Angeles counties with a combined reconstruction cost value (RCV) of $27.7 billion are at some level of risk from the Thomas, Rye and Creek Wildfires.

Picture this. The area of California that was scorched from this fall’s massive wildfires is three times the size of Washington D.C. In just one 12 hour period, the fires devastated 20,000 acres of land … and at one point was advancing at the rate of a football field every three seconds.

Coatings are an integral component of fire restoration, most crucially to prevent the recurrence of smoke odor. Coatings implemented post-fire are not finish paints, but can serve as primers while blocking stains and adhering to less-than-ideal surfaces.