Home · Services · Smoke Damage Cleanup

Smoke Damage Cleanup in Pontiac, MI

Quick answer

Smoke cleanup that maps construction before chemistry: plaster porosity, lath gaps, and balloon cavities read as the reservoirs they are.

Smoke cleanup in Pontiac's older stock is a plaster and cavity problem. Soot rides heat into lath gaps, wall cavities in balloon framed homes, and the porous plaster itself, and it re-emits odor on every warm day until the reservoir is cleaned or sealed. The cleanup therefore reads construction before chemistry: which walls are plaster, which cavities are open at the top, where the furnace ducts carried smoke from a basement-origin event. Surface cleaning without that map produces the house that smells clean in February and smoky in July.

📞 Call PLACEHOLDER Request a callback

Signs you need smoke damage cleanup

Walls and ceilings carry a gray or black film, worst near the ceiling line
A smoke smell returns every time the house warms up or the air runs
Rooms far from the fire smell as strong as the room that burned
Light colored paint, blinds, and fabrics have yellowed or grayed

What the job involves

1. Do not wipe walls or run the heating and air system before the assessment; both spread and set smoke residue.

2. The crew tests residue type, because greasy protein smoke and dry wood smoke clean differently.

3. Surfaces are dry cleaned first with chemical sponges, then wet cleaned where the material allows.

4. Soft goods and contents are sorted into cleanable and not cleanable, and you decide on anything with sentimental value.

5. Ducts and the air handler are checked, since a system that ran during the fire can distribute soot through the whole house.

What affects the price

How much of the home the smoke reached, which is usually more than the fire did
Type of smoke: protein (kitchen) smoke is nearly invisible but far more corrosive to finishes
Whether ducts and the HVAC system need cleaning
How much contents cleaning is involved versus wall and ceiling work
Whether repainting with a sealant primer is needed after cleaning

When it is an emergency

Smoke damage is not an emergency tonight unless the fire just happened, but do not run the furnace or air conditioning, and do not start wiping walls. Soot is acidic and starts permanently damaging metals, fixtures, and finishes within 24 to 48 hours, so the assessment should happen in the first day or two.

📞 PLACEHOLDER

Smoke Damage Cleanup across the Pontiac area

Downtown and the Clinton River Side Central Pontiac The South Side and Woodward Corridor

Related services

Fire Damage Restoration

Restoration scoped in three ledgers for an older city: the fire's damage, the mitigation, and the house's own century, separated from the first estimate.

Emergency Board Up and Tarping

Winter board up measured to survive a snow week, with the surviving structure's heat and water protected in the same mobilization.

Furnace Puff Back Cleanup

The heating season specialty: oily duct distributed soot cleaned dry first, house wide, with the furnace serviced and its record filed before it runs again.

Soot Removal

Dry first soot work sorted by Pontiac's surfaces, with electronics and furnace surfaces triaged early against the acid clock.

Request a callback

Prefer to talk later? Leave your details and an independent local pro will call you back. No charge to you, no obligation.

Galloway Creek Fire Restoration is a free referral service. Submitting this form connects you with independent local contractors who provide the work.