Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, and it is free and commits you to nothing. A pan fire can leave the kitchen standing and still send smoke through the house. The job may be smoke and soot cleanup and smoke odor removal and nothing more.

Yes. We work on homes and businesses, and a fire in a shop or an office gets the same walk-through, photos and itemized scope as a house fire. We take those jobs from Georgetown and Leander down to Kyle, Buda and San Marcos.

Not before the fire department says it is safe to go in. After that, take what you need to get by and leave the rest where it sits, soot and all. We photograph those things before we pack them out.

No, and many policies expect the owner to protect the building from more damage. Your insurance company decides what your policy covers. We take photos of each opening before we board it up, so your adjuster sees what the fire did.

Both of us, in different ways. The claim is yours to file, and coverage decisions belong to your insurance company. We talk with them, share our photos and itemized scope, and answer your questions along the way.

No. A claim starts when you report the loss to your insurance company, and that decision is yours. Our estimate is free, with no obligation, whether you report the loss or not.

No. Whoever insures your home or business, we talk with them and share our photos, moisture readings and itemized scope. Your insurance company decides what your policy covers, and we answer your questions about the paperwork in English or Spanish.

Maybe not, and an estimate is how you find out. A floor can look dry while the subfloor and the wall framing behind the baseboard still hold water. A moisture reading tells you what a hand on the floor cannot.

Close the main water shut-off if a pipe or fixture is the source, and take your own photos before you move anything. Leave a sagging ceiling and any wet outlet alone. Then call us. We work in all ten cities, from Georgetown down to San Marcos.

No, we are not plumbers or roofers, so stopping the leak at its source goes to that trade. Our work is what the water did after that, from the wet floor to the rebuild.

No. In Texas, the same company cannot assess and remove mold on one project. If you need testing, a separate mold assessor does it. We do the containment, the removal, the cleaning and the rebuild.

It can be. A small spot on the surface can mean a larger growth behind the drywall, where a leak has kept the wall damp. The estimate is free, with no obligation, and the moisture readings show how far the damp goes.

It depends on the policy and on what caused the mold. A sudden leak and mold that grew over a long time are often treated in different ways, and your insurance company makes that call. We share our photos and moisture readings with them.

Ask us when we walk the damage. The work area is sealed off and the air inside it is filtered, but anyone with asthma, allergies or other breathing trouble should ask a doctor before staying in the house.

Drywall, insulation and carpet are porous, so mold grows into them, not only on top. Those materials come out. Framing, concrete and other solid surfaces can often be cleaned and treated in place, then dried.

We would wait. Soot is the dark residue of whatever did not finish burning, and it is fine enough to work into paint and drywall. A wet rag can turn a dry film into a smear that stains. If you have started on one wall, stop there.

Smoke does not stay where the fire was. It rises, spreads along the ceiling and follows moving air through doorways, stairwells and air ducts. It settles where the air slows, so closets and corners collect it. The black strings that look like cobwebs in a ceiling corner are chains of soot.

It can be. Smoke from burning grass and Ashe juniper, the tree locals call cedar, carries fine ash and soot, and it comes in around windows, doors and vents. If a finger across the sill comes up gray, the smoke got inside, and our estimate is free.

It may. Insurers often treat smoke damage as part of the fire loss, wherever the smoke went. We talk with your insurance company about those rooms and share our photos of them. Your insurance company decides what your policy covers.

No. The estimate is free, whatever you decide. The itemized scope you get lists the rooms and the work, and you can take it to your adjuster, think it over, or stop there.

Paint on its own is a cover, and covers tend to fail. Smoke residue under ordinary paint can come back through as a yellow stain and give off odor again when the wall warms up. The residue has to come off before anything goes over it.

The source is still in the materials, and warm, damp air can draw more odor out of it. A house can smell fine on a cool morning and smoky by afternoon. The smell can also return when the air conditioning pushes air through ducts that carried smoke.

Not always. A nose gets used to a smell it lives with, so the people in the house are often the last to notice. Ask a friend who has not been inside, or see what you smell when you walk back in after time away.

It can. In an older pier-and-beam house in the capital's central neighborhoods, a crawl space sits under a wood floor. If smoke got down there, bare joists and subfloor can hold it, and air from below can carry the smell up between the boards. So we look under the floor too.

It can. Many policies count smoke as damage in its own right, whether it started in your kitchen or down the road. We talk with your insurance company about it, and your insurance company decides what your policy covers.

Not yet, if you can help it, and photograph anything you do move. Your adjuster may want to see what burned before it is gone. And some of what looks ruined can be cleaned.

Often more than it looks like at first. Flames ruin what they touch, but smoke and hose water reach further, and much of what they reach can be cleaned: dishes, tools, solid wood furniture, clothes from a closed closet. What burned through or melted is debris.

Because cleaning done around burned material does not last. Char keeps shedding soot and holding smoke odor, and wet debris keeps the floor under it wet. With it gone, the cleaning can reach the framing and the subfloor.

Some of it. Drywall, insulation and carpet pad that took on hose water tend to come out with the burned material. Framing and solid wood can often be dried instead, and moisture readings tell the two apart. That part is water damage restoration, on the same scope.

Often it is part of a fire claim, and many policies list debris removal as an item of its own. We talk with your insurance company and share the record we made before the debris left. Your insurance company decides what your policy covers.

Yes, when it is tap water on a hard floor. Shut the water off, take photos, then mop up what you can reach. Stay out of water that came from a drain or from outside. If the wiring may be wet, stay out until an electrician says so.

Often, yes. It depends on what kind of water it was and how long the carpet sat in it. Carpet wet from a broken supply line can often go back down over a dry pad. Carpet soaked by water from a drain or from outside often has to go.

Yes, though some of the floor may have to come up first. Many plank floors float on top of the subfloor, and water that slips through the seams is trapped under them. Wood boards take water in from below and can cup at the edges.

Depreciation is the value a thing loses as it ages. An old carpet can count for less on paper than the cost to replace it. We explain ACV, RCV and depreciation in plain English. Your insurance company decides what your policy covers.

No. It is free, with no obligation. It lists water extraction, drying and any rebuild as separate lines, so you see the whole job before you decide. We handle the rebuild after water damage too.

Yes. Flood cleanup is the same work with or without a policy behind it. The estimate is free, with no obligation, and its itemized scope shows what the job involves before you decide.

Yes. Rain that street drains cannot carry away can reach a house far from any creek. In the capital alone, the city counts more than 7,000 buildings and 400 roads prone to flooding in a 100-year flood. A failed hose or a broken pipe can flood a house on any lot.

Check two things first: the water and the wiring. If the water came from outside or up through a drain, stay out of it, and leave wet outlets, cords and appliances alone. When in doubt, stay out until an electrician or the power company says it is safe.

It depends on the water and on how long it stood. Carpet pad, insulation and soaked drywall often come out. Framing, concrete and solid wood can often be cleaned and dried in place.

It is the same work with more water. Water damage restoration after a small leak means extraction, drying, a record and the rebuild. Flood cleanup adds mud to take out, more soaked material to remove and, often, the question of which policy applies.

Yes. A tarp is a temporary cover, and many policies ask the owner to keep a loss from getting worse. The photos we take before the tarp goes on are there for your adjuster. Your insurance company decides what your policy covers.

It can be. Wind can push rain past a window frame or under a door that keeps out an ordinary shower. The wall below can be wet inside while the paint looks fine, and a moisture reading there settles it.

You may not. If no water got in, the roof is a roofing company's job and there may be nothing for us to do. A stain, a drip or damp insulation means water did get in, and a free estimate shows how far. Stay out from under a ceiling that sags.

Yes, and the work is the same. In the 2021 winter storm, pipes froze and burst across both metros, and that water soaked floors and ceilings as rain through a roof does. We are not plumbers, so the pipe goes to that trade.

One record: photos of the opening, moisture readings and the itemized scope. We talk with your insurance company and share that record, and we explain ACV, RCV and depreciation in plain English or in Spanish.