Restoration services
Fire and smoke restoration is three jobs that arrive together: securing and drying a building that was damaged by the fire and by the water used to put it out, removing soot residues that behave differently depending on what burned, and eliminating odour that has travelled well beyond the visible damage. The burnt area is usually the smallest part of the scope.
HyreRestore is not a restoration contractor and not an insurance adjuster. We dry nothing, remediate nothing and rebuild nothing. This page explains the work so you can read a scope, judge the company that wrote it, and follow your own claim.
If this is happening right now. Do not re-enter until the fire service has released the building. When you do, take nothing on and touch nothing sooty — handling soot presses it into surfaces and turns a cleanable item into a replaceable one. Photograph everything before anyone starts, and if the power or gas was cut, leave it off until it is checked. Once the property is safe and the source is stopped, you can reach HyreRestore on (866) 582-8523 — but we are a research desk, not an emergency line, and a local company will always be faster.
The short version
Fire losses are routinely under-scoped at first glance because most of the damage is not where the flames were.
Half of this list concerns areas where nothing burned.
Board-up and tarping of every opening the fire and the fire service created. Until this is done, weather and access are adding to the loss daily, and an insurer will expect it to have been done promptly.
Photographs and video of every room, every damaged item and every surface. Do your own set as well. Contents claims are won and lost on what was recorded before cleanup began.
Extraction and structural drying to a measured goal, exactly as in any water loss. Firefighting water is often the larger volume of damage and, left alone, produces a mould problem on top of a fire one.
Early cleaning or treatment of metals, electronics and vulnerable finishes, because these continue to deteriorate while residue sits on them.
Charred material, heavily contaminated porous items and burnt insulation come out. Removal is also how technicians find the true boundary of the damage.
Method matched to residue type, dry before wet, HEPA vacuuming throughout, working from the least aggressive method that works. Aggressive cleaning of the wrong residue is how a cleanable surface becomes a replaced one.
On-site cleaning for some items; pack-out to a facility for textiles, electronics and anything needing specialist treatment; a documented non-salvageable list for the rest.
Ducts, equipment and filters, because a cleaned house on a contaminated system re-contaminates itself the first time the heating runs.
Removing or sealing the material holding it, opening cavities where residue is trapped, cleaning the things that actually hold odour. Air treatment is the finishing step, not the strategy.
Sealing sound surfaces where residue cannot be fully removed, then reconstruction — a separate scope, separately priced, and the phase where you have time to compare bids.
Restoration technicians classify residues because the correct method for one is the wrong method for another. Applying a wet method to a dry residue, or scrubbing a greasy one, drives it into the surface and makes it permanent.
| Dry smoke residue | From a fast, hot, well-ventilated fire burning mostly paper and wood. Powdery and relatively loose, often removable with dry sponges and HEPA vacuuming before anything wet is introduced. |
|---|---|
| Wet smoke residue | From a slower, smouldering, oxygen-starved fire, and from plastics and rubber. Sticky, smeary and strongly odorous, it resists dry methods and needs solvents and considerable labour. |
| Protein residue | From cooking fires where food burned. Often nearly invisible — a thin varnish-like film that discolours finishes — with an odour far out of proportion to what you can see. Missed frequently, and the usual cause of a "clean" kitchen that still smells in a month. |
| Fuel-oil soot | From a heating system puff-back, spread through the building by the system that produced it. Oily, and typically distributed everywhere the ductwork reaches. |
| Corrosive residues | Some combustion products, particularly from plastics and synthetics, leave acidic residues that continue to etch metals, glass and finishes while they sit. This is why stabilising quickly protects value even before any rebuilding decision is made. |
| What this means for you | A technician who cannot tell you what kind of residue they are dealing with and what method it calls for is about to find out by experiment on your property. It is a fair question to ask on day one. |
A fire loss is normally several invoices: emergency securing, mitigation and drying, structural cleaning, contents, and reconstruction. They have different logic and should be legible separately.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Emergency board-up and tarping | Usually the first invoice, priced by openings and area, and normally expected by an insurer as part of your duty to prevent further damage. |
| Residue type and severity | Wet smoke and protein residues take dramatically more labour per square foot than dry residue, on the same amount of visible damage. |
| Area affected by residue and odour | Routinely much larger than the burn area, and the usual reason an initial estimate grows. |
| Water mitigation | A complete drying scope with its own equipment-days arithmetic, sitting inside the fire claim. |
| Contents volume and type | The count of items, how many need pack-out, and how many need specialist treatment. Electronics and textiles are their own categories. |
| Pack-out, storage and return | Transport, a period in storage while the building is worked on, and delivery back. Easy to overlook until it appears on an invoice. |
| HVAC cleaning | Ductwork and equipment, where the system was running or is otherwise contaminated. |
| Odour work | Source removal, cavity access and sealing. The cost is in the removal; the treatment at the end is the cheap part. |
| Reconstruction scope and finishes | Structural repair and rebuild, priced like any construction job, and driven heavily by whether existing materials can be matched. |
| Additional living expenses | Not a contractor cost, but a real one. Fire losses displace households for longer than water losses do. |
HyreRestore publishes no average price for this work. Category of loss, affected area, how long equipment runs and local rebuild costs move the number far enough that a single figure would mislead more than it helped.
How standard homeowners policies commonly work, not what your policy says. Your declarations page and your state decide the actual answer.
| Fire is a named covered peril | Fire is among the perils standard homeowners policies are built around, which makes these claims more straightforward in principle than water claims often are. |
|---|---|
| Firefighting damage is part of the loss | Water used to extinguish, holes cut for ventilation and doors forced for access are generally treated as part of the fire damage rather than separate events. |
| Smoke damage without fire damage | Smoke and soot damage is commonly covered even in rooms where nothing burned. This is why scoping the whole building rather than the burnt room matters to the claim. |
| Contents as a separate part of the claim | Personal property is generally its own limit, its own inventory and its own settlement, which is why the inventory and the photographs matter so much. |
| ACV or replacement cost | Whether you hold actual cash value or replacement cost decides whether depreciation is recoverable once you replace items. Fire claims involve large contents lists, so this distinction is worth real money here. |
| Additional living expenses | Standard policies commonly cover the extra cost of living elsewhere while the home is uninhabitable. Keep every receipt from the first night. |
| Supplements | Additional damage found once cleaning and demolition expose surfaces is submitted as an addition with documentation. Routine on fire losses. |
| Cause and origin investigation | The insurer may investigate how the fire started before settling. This is normal; keep the scene undisturbed where asked to and keep your own photographs. |
Coverage is decided by your own policy and the peril, not by what is typical. Read the declarations page, and where the answer matters, put the question to your insurer in writing.
The question that separates real odour work from a fragrance. “What are you removing, and where is the odour source?” Not which machine, not which product. Smoke odour lives in porous materials, cavities and ductwork; anything that only treats surfaces is masking. A company that answers by naming the materials coming out and the cavities being opened is doing the job. One that answers with a product name is selling you a pleasant few weeks.
The full ten-point checklist is on choosing a restoration company.
Two problems at once. Handling soot presses it into surfaces and can turn a cleanable item into a replaceable one, and you have destroyed the evidence for that part of the claim. Photograph first, and leave the residue for people with the right method.
Contents are usually a separate limit with their own settlement, and the inventory is what supports it. Photograph, list, and hold everything until the adjuster has seen it or released you in writing. Early disposal reliably reduces settlements.
Suppression water is a full water loss with the same rules: extraction, a drying goal, daily readings. Fire losses that later become mould claims almost always got this part wrong while everyone was focused on the soot.
Ozone, hydroxyl and thermal fogging all have legitimate places at the end of a properly executed job. Used instead of removing the material holding the odour, they buy weeks. The smell returns with the first humid spell or the first time the heating runs.
Every day an opening in the roof or a broken window stays uncovered adds weather damage on top of fire damage, and an insurer will reasonably ask why it was not secured. Board-up and tarping are the first call, not a later decision.
If the system was running during the fire, switching it back on redistributes residue through every room it serves — including rooms that were clean. Leave it off until someone has inspected it.
Because smoke moves as a gas and as fine particles, and both travel wherever air travels — through wall and floor cavities, around plumbing and electrical penetrations, and through the HVAC system if it was running. Odour molecules then absorb into porous materials: drywall, insulation, textiles, carpet, upholstery. The room looks untouched because the residue is thin and inside things rather than on them. This is the single most common reason a fire scope is larger than homeowners expect.
Usually, but only by addressing the source rather than the air. That means removing porous material that holds odour, cleaning what can be cleaned with the right method for the residue, opening and treating cavities where residue is trapped, cleaning the ductwork, and sealing surfaces where residue cannot be fully removed. Air treatment at the end helps finish the job. Air treatment instead of the job is temporary, and you will discover that the first humid week or the first time the heating runs.
Dry smoke comes from fast, hot, well-oxygenated fires burning mostly paper and wood; the residue is powdery and comparatively cooperative, often removed dry before anything wet is used. Wet smoke comes from slow, smouldering, oxygen-starved fires and from burning plastics and rubber; it is sticky, it smears when wiped, it carries strong odour and it takes solvents and much more labour. The methods are not interchangeable — using a wet method on dry residue can set it into the surface permanently.
Because protein residue is nearly invisible. Burned food leaves a thin, greasy, varnish-like film that yellows finishes and carries an odour wildly out of proportion to anything you can see. Homeowners and inexperienced crews frequently declare a kitchen clean while the film remains on cabinet interiors, upper walls and ceilings — and the smell comes back. It takes systematic cleaning of every surface in the affected air, not just the visibly dirty ones.
Generally yes. Damage caused by suppressing a covered fire — water used to extinguish, holes cut in the roof for ventilation, forced doors — is commonly treated as part of the fire loss rather than a separate event. Practically this matters because it means the drying scope belongs in the same claim, and it should be run with the same discipline as any water loss: a stated drying goal, daily readings, and a log.
Your belongings are inventoried, photographed, packed and transported to a facility where they can be cleaned with equipment and methods that are not practical on site, then stored while the building is worked on and returned at the end. It is a legitimate and often necessary service, and it is a separate scope with separate costs including storage. Insist on the inventory and the photographs, ask how long storage is expected to run, and ask what happens if the rebuild takes longer than planned.
Not until the system has been inspected. If it was running during or after the fire it has drawn residue into the ducts and the equipment, and switching it on distributes that into every room the system serves, including rooms that escaped. Have it checked, have the ductwork assessed, and have it cleaned if it was involved — otherwise a fully cleaned house re-contaminates itself.
Ozone is a recognised deodorisation method used in unoccupied spaces, and it has genuine effect on odour. It is also a lung irritant, which is why treatment is done with the building empty of people, pets and plants, and followed by a clearance period before reoccupation. The real question is not whether it works but what it is being asked to do: as a finishing step after the odour-holding material has been removed, it is reasonable. As a substitute for that removal, it is a delay.
Longer than people expect, and in stages. Emergency securing is immediate. Water mitigation and drying run days. Structural cleaning runs from days to weeks depending on residue type and area. Contents cleaning happens in parallel, often off site, and can be the longest single element. Reconstruction is a construction project with its own timeline and depends on the claim being settled and materials being available. Displacement of months is common on a substantial fire loss.
The IICRC certifies fire and smoke restoration technicians, and asking which technicians attending your job hold it — not whether the company has a logo — is a fair question with a specific answer. Beyond that, ask about contents handling specifically, since it is a different discipline from structural cleaning, and check contractor licensing for whoever is doing the reconstruction, which is ordinary construction work subject to ordinary licensing rules in your state.
Often, if they are dealt with quickly and not switched on. Combustion residues can be acidic, and they continue acting on circuitry and contacts for as long as they sit there, so the value of early stabilisation is real. Specialist electronics cleaning exists and is a normal part of a contents scope. What kills devices is time and the instinct to plug them in and see whether they still work.
Information on this page is general and may vary by state, by policy, by peril, by building and by your own circumstances. It is not insurance, legal or medical advice, and it is not a substitute for professional assessment of a damaged property. HyreRestore is an independent restoration information resource and connection platform, not a restoration contractor, insurer or public adjuster, and does not perform, supervise or warrant any restoration work.
Tell us what happened and the zip code. Free, and no obligation to hire anyone.