Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration in Burlington

Once the fire department releases the scene, call us and call your insurer, same hour if you can manage it. Please don’t start wiping soot, it almost always makes things worse. And don’t run the furnace or AC, because it’ll drag smoke residue through every duct in the house. We can be there the same day to lock the place down and start documenting.

With a small, contained fire, sometimes. Often not, and it’s worth taking seriously, because soot and combustion gases are a real health concern even in rooms that look fine. We broke down when it’s safe to stay after a fire if you want the details. The good news: most Ontario policies include additional living expenses coverage for a hotel or rental, and we’ll help you get that part of your claim moving on day one.

It will, as long as the source comes out. That’s the catch. The smell lives in charred framing, insulation, ductwork and wall cavities. We remove or treat those materials, run hydroxyl or ozone, and seal what stays. Spraying deodorizer over it is what the cut rate outfits do, and the smell is back in a month. If a room still smells when we’re done, we’re not done.

More than you’d think. Hard furniture, a lot of electronics if they’re wiped down early, most of the framing, and a surprising amount of clothing through proper cleaning. Mattresses, heavily charred porous materials and any food from the affected area are usually done. Everything we dispose of gets photographed and listed for your contents claim, not just tossed in the bin.

A contained kitchen fire with smoke cleanup usually runs two to six weeks. A structural fire with a rebuild is a three to nine month project depending on scope, permits and how fast approvals move. We put the full breakdown in how long fire damage restoration takes. Either way, you get a written schedule and a project manager who checks in weekly instead of vanishing between phases.

Fire is the one thing every Ontario home policy is built around, so yes, nearly always. That includes the smoke damage, the water the fire hoses left behind, and your living expenses if you’re out of the house. The real negotiation is over scope and value, not whether you’re covered, and that’s where our Xactimate estimating and CPPA certified appraisers earn their keep.

We do. iGuide 3D scan and photos of the loss, scope written in Xactimate, adjuster met on site, insurer billed for the approved work. You stay in charge of the decisions, we carry the paperwork.

Because the handoff is where fire jobs fall apart. A cleanup crew that doesn’t build has no reason to care what the rebuild needs, and a builder who never saw the loss inherits every surprise behind the drywall. We’re IICRC certified on the restoration side and HCRA licensed on the building side, so one team owns the whole thing. If you’re weighing options, our piece on renovating vs rebuilding after fire damage is a good place to start.

Absolutely. Furnace puffbacks, a stovetop flare up, a fireplace that backdrafted, smoke drifting over from a neighbour’s unit. Small jobs get the same process, and they’re often wrapped up inside a week.

Good question, and in Burlington it comes up a lot because so much of the housing stock predates 1990. Fire damaged plaster, insulation and flooring from that era can contain asbestos, and Ontario rules say it gets tested before demolition, no exceptions. We handle the testing, and if it comes back positive our own crew does the abatement under containment as part of the same project.