Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration in San Antonio and Austin, TX

Three kinds of damage land on a house at once, and fire and smoke damage restoration has to repair all of them. First the fire itself: charred framing, burned decking, melted fixtures and wiring. Then smoke and soot, which spread far past the burn area and coat walls, ceilings, cabinets and the inside of the ductwork. And then water from the firefight. One hose line can put a lot of water into a house in very little time. Each kind gets handled on its own terms. Charred material comes out. Soot gets cleaned with methods that match the residue. Anything wet is dried or removed before a wall gets closed. After that the rebuild puts it all back, from roof decking and shingles down to drywall, paint and trim. Texas-RRR does the full fire damage repair for Austin homeowners, and it starts with a free estimate.

The water half uses the same drying steps laid out on our water damage restoration page.

A grease fire on the stove can blacken the wall behind the cooktop and leave a back bedroom smelling like a campfire. How? Heat pushes smoke through the house, and the HVAC system sucks it into the returns and blows it back out every vent. The residue isn't all the same, either, and which kind you've got decides how it gets cleaned.

• Dry soot comes from fast, hot fires burning paper and wood. Powdery, and it smears if you wipe it the wrong way.
• Oily soot is left by slow, smoldering fires in plastics and synthetics. Dark and sticky, with a film ordinary household cleaners won't cut.
• Protein residue shows up after kitchen fires where food burned. You can barely see it (it's yellowish), but the smell is stubborn.

Smoke residue is acidic. Leave it and it can etch glass, tarnish metal and stain grout and countertops. It works its way into attic insulation too, which is partly why the smell returns on the first hot Austin afternoon.

The mistake we see most after a smoke loss is somebody painting over it. Regular paint won't seal smoke odor, and it doesn't stick well to sooty walls. Stains bleed through, and the smell comes right back with them, usually the first time the AC runs hard in July. Clean first, seal with an odor-blocking primer, paint last. Slower, sure. It's also the only way that lasts.

Kitchen and garage fires like to climb. They get into the attic and burn rafters and decking from underneath, which is exactly why fire damage roof repair belongs in the same scope and where we differ from a typical smoke damage restoration company. Even if the flames stop short of the roof, heat can blister shingles and cook the underlayment. Firefighters also commonly cut ventilation holes in the roof to let out heat and smoke, and the house is open to the weather as soon as the trucks pull away.

So the first thing we do on a fire-damaged roof is dry it in. Openings left by the fire or the fire crew get tarped and covered so rain doesn't bring a second round of water damage. Next we inspect from the attic side, photograph the charred and heat-damaged spots, and put the roof into the claim with its own line items. Decking that's been through a fire can lose strength and still look fine from on top, so we probe it rather than trust the surface. Some sections can be rebuilt. Sometimes a full roof replacement is the right call, and if so we'll show you the photos that say why. Light heat damage around a chimney or vent might only need a targeted roof repair.

If you can see sky through the roof right now, call about emergency roof repair and tarping before anything else. The rest can wait for daylight tomorrow, when we can actually see the damage. The rain won't wait.

1. Wait for the all-clear. It's the fire department's call when the house is safe to go into. We don't go in before then, and you shouldn't either.
2. Secure the structure. We tarp the roof and cover broken windows and doors so no more weather gets inside.
3. Document everything. Photos and notes in every room, even the lightly smoked ones, plus the attic and roof. Then we meet your adjuster at the house and walk the loss together.
4. Tear out what can't be saved. That means charred framing and decking, smoke-soaked insulation, and drywall that's wet or burned.
5. Clean soot and residue. The method depends on the surface and the residue. Dry soot, oily soot and protein residue all need different handling.
6. Deal with the odor. Smoke odor removal comes down to pulling out the source, cleaning surfaces and HVAC paths, and sealing cleaned framing before it's covered up.
7. Dry any water the firefight left behind, checking moisture readings before the walls close.
8. Rebuild. Roof, framing repairs, insulation, drywall, paint, trim and finishes.
9. Final walkthrough with you, one room at a time.

How we schedule and keep you posted is covered on our our process page.

After a fire, the Texas Department of Insurance tells homeowners to report the claim promptly, hold on to receipts for extra living costs if they can't stay in the house, and list the damaged belongings. There are legal deadlines as well. Under the prompt payment rules in chapter 542 of the Texas Insurance Code, an insurer generally has 15 days to acknowledge your claim, and then 15 business days to accept or deny it once it has the information it asked for. Ask your carrier about loss of use coverage. A lot of policies include it for the cost of living elsewhere while repairs happen.

Most fire claims break into three parts: the structure (the house itself), contents (your belongings), and living expenses. We handle the structure. Drawing on 30+ years of insurance claim experience in-house, we write a detailed scope covering fire, smoke and water damage, meet the adjuster on site, and point out what first estimates tend to leave off. Smoke damage in rooms far from the fire. Attic insulation. HVAC cleaning. The roof. Contents usually run on their own track between you, your adjuster and a contents specialist. The claim is yours to file and own, and we give you the documentation to support it. Our six-step approach is on the insurance claims page.

West Austin, Lakeway and the Hill Country edge are where houses run right up against cedar and grassland. Fire risk around Austin isn't just kitchens and dryer vents. The Austin Fire Department runs a Wildfire Division focused on that wildland-urban interface, and the City of Austin adopted a Wildland-Urban Interface Code for parcels near large wildland areas. A brush fire that never touches your house can still leave smoke residue on the siding and soffits, ash in the gutters, and a smell in the attic. That ash on the gutters and shingles washes across the roof with the next rain, so a smoke inspection should cover the outside too. We serve homeowners across Austin and the surrounding counties through our Austin line.

We take on fire and smoke losses in Round Rock, Georgetown, Lakeway and Dripping Springs, and our San Antonio crews handle San Antonio on the 210 line. Smoke and water trapped in walls can lead to mold as well, which our mold remediation page gets into. See what customers say on our reviews page, or contact us for a free estimate.