Garage Fire Restoration in a Lake Worth Home

An electrical short in this Lake Worth garage was enough to encompass this entire addition of the house with fire and smoke damage. After the first responders left, it was up to our SERVPRO professionals to take note of the damage to the garage, its contents, and any neighboring areas connected. Early inspections of the damage by our production manager or crew chief with the homeowner identified both the most pressing restoration concerns and the customer's priorities. These inspections can make several processes more efficient, such as:

Controlled demolition
Content recovery
Water removal
Soot cleanup
Odor removal

Clearing the Way for Fire Restoration

In the Before Photo, you can see the need for fire restoration as this entire back wall of the garage area experienced soot and smoke damage. All of these individual contents from these shelves would need to be removed from the garage and assessed to determine their salvageability. Cabinets along the top of the shelves bore the brunt of the soot damage. Overcoming this would require discarding these MDF units altogether to inspect the drywall behind them for harm.

Protecting Contents Recovered from the Fire Damage

Preventing harm to the contents of the garage meant finding somewhere nearby where items could be relocated. While SERVPRO technicians stored some of these possessions in the house, our warehouse would receive the bulk of items requiring soot cleaning and deodorization. Cleaning technicians utilized advanced restoration equipment like our ultrasonic tank and Esporta Wash System to eliminate set-in soot soils.

The Need for Controlled Demolition

As you can see from the finished product in the After Photo, our team used controlled demolition techniques to remove and discard drywall paneling and ceiling materials and later replaced them. With thick soot residues, controlled demolition was recommended to clear a space for reconstruction to begin efficiently and correctly.

Odor Removal and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Improvement

Charred materials and burning fuels left a harsh and overwhelming odor in the Lake Worth garage structure, which we began to address using a hydroxyl generator in the room. This machine worked to overcome harsh smells left behind after extinguishment and trap soot particles and ash in the onboard HEPA filter for the unit. Running this machine early on helped to reduce the full deodorization process later after reconstruction with thermal foggers, ozone machines, and other neutralizing compounds.

What It Takes to Make It "Like it never even happened."

As you can see from referencing the Before and After Photos, several months passed between the initial inspection and evaluation to the completed, clean result. SERVPRO professionals worked tirelessly during that period to ensure that the needs of the property were met before returning the contents back to the Lake Worth garage, as can be seen in the After Photo. With our general contractor license, we reconstructed where the garage had been stripped to its studs and left a happy customer using what looks and functions like a brand new structure.