Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration Seattle, Lynwood & Surrounding Areas

Fire losses are traumatic. 

Firemen dragging hoses through the home and wearing heavy boots that can scuff up the inside. Furniture and clothes have soot damage, maybe water damage, and fire damage. 

The property owner is stunned, discouraged, angry, confused, and they don’t know what to do, where to go, or who to call; it’s all upsetting! That’s where we come in! 

PuroClean Northwest knows these situations very well. We know about mitigation, contents, reconstruction, working with insurance adjusters, and we have the training, materials, supplies, chemistry, specialty equipment, and network to get you back in control.We wrote the book on mitigation, www.TheMitigationHandbook.com, and we advise mitigation companies across the nation on fire damage mitigation and restoration procedures. We’ll take care of you!

Trust PuroClean Northwest for Smoke Damage Restoration in Lynnwood, WA

The Timeline

Getting you back in your home is a long process after a major fire. It can take months. Here is the typical timeline from our experience:

• Getting you back in your home is a long process after a major fire. It can take months. Here is the typical timeline from our experience:
• It is normal and customary for the insured to pay to the rebuild contractor half of the amount, and with that they buy materials and get started. Then the long process of rebuild begins – permits, scheduling, overcoming weather conditions, and working with the insured on paint colors, carpet preferences, flooring, cabinets, and more. 
• Fire occurs, insured contacts insurance, adjuster assigned, mitigation company selected and scope determined. Mitigation company does initial work. Adjuster helps insured to find temporary living arrangements.
  • Timeline – 1 week
• Content contractors selected, contents are removed from the home.
  • Timeline – 1 to 3 weeks
• Inventories are done, photos taken, report written, and everything is muscled out by the movers. 
• Mitigation work resumes and then is completed. Typically involves a combination of demolition and cleaning. 
  • Timeline – 2 to 4 weeks
• PuroClean Northwest has a 4-phase process described below. 
• Reconstruction 
  • Timeline 2 to 10 months 
  • Why so long? Your adjuster will write what is called a rebuild estimate. The contractor then negotiates with the adjuster to arrive at a scope and a price. This alone can takes many, many weeks. Once they agree on scope and price, the adjuster sends to the insured a check.
  • It is normal and customary for the insured to pay to the rebuild contractor half of the amount, and with that they buy materials and get started. Then the long process of rebuild begins – permits, scheduling, overcoming weather conditions, and working with the insured on paint colors, carpet preferences, flooring, cabinets, and more.

In the restoration industry, we categorize fires in three different ways:

1. Synthetic – Plastics burning, petroleum based. Toxic. Oily. Sticky. We remove the soot damage and clean and disinfect the home.

2. Wood – Most catastrophic of them all, highest heat, major demolition not unusual, contents hard to save, asbestos and lead testing required.

• Often the homeowner is underinsured on these losses. Check with your adjuster before proceeding with any work.

3. Protein – Stovetop flareup, fire extinguishers used, very odorous. We Degrease, Disinfect, and Deodorize.

At PuroClean Northwest we use a 4-Phase systematic process to mitigate fire losses that we developed and perfected.

The 4-phase protocol starts with…

• Phase 1 – “Day 1”
  • We promptly enhance the home’s appearance, improve air quality, and prevent further structural damage. All of this is documented.

• Phase 2 – “Demo”
  • Two principal factors affect the decision for demolition – Heat (Intensity) and Duration (of Event). Severe water damage cause by necessity by the Fire Department, even with modest fire, when the two are combined, are a third reason for demolition.

• Phase 3 – “Surfaces”
  • Forensic Restoration is the comprehensive and complete remediation of contaminated structures to pre-event conditions. 
  • Surfaces need to be cleaned using appropriate chemistry, with mechanical action, to disinfect and to remove the contaminants.

• Phase 4 – “Air Space”
  • Treat the air; air quality is a core duty of the restoration company, get into crevices to remove odor.

Contents

• Three Types – Porous, Semi-Porous, Non-Porous.
  • Porous – fabrics, draperies, clothing, carpet, area rugs, padding, bedding.
  • Semi-Porous – finished wood, bare wood, cabinets (oak, pressboard), hardwood floors, dressers, wood desks.
  • Non-Porous – metals, hard plastics, ceramics, silverware, dishes, glasses, pots and pans. Anything non-porous can be cleaned.
  • Specialty Item – Paintings, Computers, Monitors.

There are different protocols for each material type; we can advise on this!

Differentiators

• PuroClean Northwest uses Garnet Blasting and Positive Pressure Duct Cleaning
• Garnet Blasting

• Charred timbers can be blasted clean, removing odor source, allowing sistering of rafters, joists, and other timbers expensive to remove and replace.
• Clean damaged plaster lath surfaces, removing odor, making ready for paint, replacing need to demo older and expensive materials.
• Superior results on brick and masonry, no harsh chemicals, make brand new in appearance.
• Positive Pressure Duct Cleaning
  • Toxic soot, protein odor, wood char all affect the ducts. Ducts can be sheet metal, flexible, or both. Only our system cleans all ducts with no damage to these ducts.
  • Only our system does a 360-degree spray application of our chemistry inside every square inch of duct surface – disinfecting and deodorizing safely and efficiently.

To our knowledge PuroClean Northwest is the only mitigation contractor in Washington state with these two technologies – Garnet Blasting and Positive Pressure Duct Cleaning.

Reconstruction

Often the insured knows a contractor, and desires them to do the rebuild. Or, the adjuster will assign a contractor. We are happy to recommend quality rebuild contractors in our network, these are all licensed, bonded, insured, and think like we do – cost conscious, well established, fair, honorable, timely, and they do quality work. 

With a contractor we recommend we have influence. Though you would work with them directly, if you are ever displeased, we are happy to get involved. If insurance, or you, pick the contractor, we have no real influence over them (schedule, price, etc.). 

We take no kickback or percentage of the rebuild contractor’s fees. We never have and never will. We recommend contractors with a clean conscious. If they ever fail, we will not recommend them anymore.

Closing Comments: Fire assignments almost always affect the entire home or commercial business. Our team is well-trained in fire loss mitigation. We do a complete layout of the floor plan, take 360° pictures, document everything we do daily, keep in contact with the adjuster, and work with you every step of the way. Our desire is to lift your burdens and have you smiling early out in the process. We value your trust!

Fire Damage Restoration Services FAQs

Below are questions typically asked by our PuroClean customers: