Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Red Hook

Attached row houses

In a row of attached brick houses, smoke and soot move through shared walls and the space above the top floor into the homes next door. We check both sides, not just the room that burned, and document each home separately for each owner's insurer.

Warehouses and mixed-use buildings

High ceilings and open floors let smoke spread wide and settle on everything. Heavy timber framing and old wood floors soak up odor, which takes removal at the source, not masking. When a business sits below homes, or the other way around, we plan the work so the parts of the building that can stay open do.

The water from the fire

Hose water from the fire department soaks into old brick and floor decking and keeps doing damage after the trucks leave. We extract it and dry the structure before mold starts. See water damage after a fire.

Restaurants and commercial kitchens

Red Hook's restaurants and food businesses mean commercial kitchens in old buildings, often with apartments or studios upstairs. A kitchen fire leaves a greasy, sticky smoke residue that travels through the hood and exhaust path and settles on every surface nearby, and it doesn't wipe off the way dry soot does. The kitchen, the exhaust path and the spaces above all need to be checked. See kitchen fire damage and commercial fire restoration.

Before the adjuster comes

• Don't throw out damaged items until they've been photographed or the adjuster has seen them
• Take photos and video of every room, including rooms that only smell like smoke
• Save the receipts for costs the fire caused you, like a hotel stay or board-up
• Don't run the heating or air conditioning until it's been checked, since it can spread soot through the whole building

We document the damage room by room, which is what your adjuster will need. More on fire damage claims.

Why smoke smell hangs on in old buildings

Smoke works its way into everything porous: brick mortar, plaster, old wood floors and the heavy timber in converted warehouses. Paint over it and the smell comes back on the first humid day. The odor has to come out at the source, which means cleaning or removing the materials holding it and then treating the air.

Sprinkler water in loft and commercial buildings

Many converted warehouses and commercial buildings have sprinkler systems. When a head opens, it keeps releasing water until the system is shut down, so a small fire can leave a much larger water problem, often on the floors below. That water soaks into old wood floors and plaster quickly. We treat it like any other water loss: extract, open what's wet, and dry it with readings to prove it, alongside the smoke cleanup.

What happens on the first visit

• Secure the building: board up openings, tarp the roof if needed, and make sure it's safe to walk through
• Walk every room, including the ones that only smell like smoke, and check the units on either side
• Check for water from the firefighting and start drying it the same day
• Photograph everything and write up a scope you can hand to your insurer

From there, the cleaning and the rebuild follow a plan you've seen, not a surprise.