Can you paint over smoke damage?

No, and anybody who says yes is selling you a repeat of the job. Soot is an oily, acidic residue rather than dust, and it bleeds through ordinary wall paint within months — a wall that looks clean in spring is yellow by the end of the year, and the smell comes back with it. The surfaces that stay are cleaned down dry first, because a wet cloth drives soot in and sets it, then sealed with a shellac-based primer, and only then painted. Most porous surfaces are not sealed at all; they are removed.

How do you get a smoke smell out of a house?

Mostly by carrying it out. Smoke odor lives in porous material — carpet and pad, batt insulation, upholstery, particle board, ceiling texture, and the inside of the ductwork — so the work is removing what holds it, cleaning what is hard and washable, and sealing what stays with a shellac-based primer. Ozone generators, hydroxyl machines, fogging and duct cleaning all have a real place and all of them are specialist equipment that gets referred out. None of them replaces taking the carpet up. And do not run the furnace or the air conditioning: that pulls soot into every duct and turns one room into the whole house.

My fire was small. Will anybody actually come out?

Yes, and it is most of why this service exists. A scorched wall behind a range, a burnt receptacle, a soot fan above a failed light fitting, a space heater against a closet, a garage — jobs of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars fall between a restoration franchise geared to insurance work and a contractor who wants a rebuild, so people ring six numbers and get nowhere. Send a photograph; somebody comes out and looks, and you get a fixed price in writing.

Do you do emergency fire restoration?

No, and that is worth being plain about. There is no night number here, no board-up, no tarping and no water extraction crew, and the hours are Monday to Friday. Straight after a fire the order is the fire department, then your insurer, then a restoration contractor who is set up for that first week. What this company does is the repair and the rebuild — the small fire nobody else will come out for, and the putting-back once the mitigation work is finished.

Is there water damage as well as fire damage?

Usually, and it is often the bigger half. A kitchen fire that burned one wall can leave two rooms soaked by the time the fire service has finished, and water goes where fire does not. They get repaired in the opposite order to the way they happened — the water first, because nothing goes back over wet framing or wet insulation, and a moisture reading decides when that is rather than a hand on the wall.

Does the kind of fire change the repair?

Considerably. A fast flaming fire leaves dry, powdery soot that cleans comparatively well. A slow smoldering fire, or one involving plastics or cooking oil, leaves a greasy film that is the hardest thing on this list to get out of a surface and out of a smell — and it travels further, because a smoldering fire produces far more smoke for far longer. How far the smoke went is usually what sets the size of the job, not how far the fire went.

Will you work with my insurance?

Alongside it rather than through it. This company does not bill insurers and does not negotiate with adjusters, so what you get is an itemized fixed-price quote in writing with the exclusions listed, which you hand to yours. Homeowners tend to find that an easier document to get agreed than a restoration estimate, because every line on it is a specific thing somebody is going to do for a stated price. Photograph everything before it is cleaned or discarded, including the rooms the fire never reached.

What does fire damage repair cost?

There is no rate card, and on this job a figure quoted without seeing the room would be a guess. What sets it is how far the smoke went rather than how far the fire went, what burned, whether firefighting water is in it too, how much porous material is in the room, and whether the odor and structural work has already been done by somebody else. Send photographs, somebody comes out and looks, and you get a fixed price in writing. Coming out is free.

Fire and Smoke Damage Repair: Why Painting Over Soot Never Works, and Who Does What in Which Order

Three things decide how a fire repair goes, and only one of them is the fire. How far the smoke went, what was burning, and how much water the fire service put in — those are the job. The burnt wall is usually the easy part.

Need it put back? Send photographs and we will tell you what you are looking at. Somebody comes out, looks properly, and you get a fixed price in writing before anything starts. Book a free quote or call 517-505-7135.

You cannot paint over smoke

This is the one to know, because it is the thing most often promised away.

Soot is not dust. It is an oily, acidic residue, and depending on what burned it is aggressive on finishes. It keeps bleeding through ordinary wall paint for years — a wall that looked clean in May is yellow by Christmas, and the smell comes back up with it.

What works is the opposite order to what people try. Clean the surface dry first, because a wet cloth on soot drives it into the surface and sets it. Then seal what stays with a shellac-based primer — not a wall paint, and not another coat of the same thing. Then paint.

And accept that some surfaces do not get sealed at all. They get removed, because the smell is inside them rather than on them.

The smell is in the materials, not the air

Smoke odor lives in porous things: carpet and carpet pad, batt insulation, upholstery, particle board, ceiling texture, and the inside of the ductwork. That is why a house can be scrubbed and aired for two weeks and still smell — it still contains the thing that smells.

Ozone generators, hydroxyl machines, thermal fogging and duct cleaning all have a real place in this work. They are specialist equipment and a specialist's job, and we refer them out by name. What none of them is, is a substitute for carrying the carpet out of the house.

And do not run the furnace or the central air. Running the system after a fire pulls soot into every duct in the building and turns a one-room job into a whole-house one. It is the most expensive mistake available in the first hour, and it is free to avoid.

There is usually more water than fire

A kitchen fire that burned one wall can leave two rooms soaked by the time the fire service is finished. Water goes where fire does not, and it keeps going after everybody has left.

The two get repaired in the reverse of the order they happened — the water first — because nothing goes back over wet framing or wet insulation, and a moisture reading decides when that is rather than a hand on the wall. If that half is most of your job, it is set out in full on water damage repair.

The small fire nobody comes out for

There are two fires on this page and most people arrive with the first one.

A pan fire that took the wall behind the range. A dryer or a receptacle that scorched the drywall around it. A space heater left against a closet. A burnt-out light fitting with a black fan of soot above it. A garage.

These are a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, and they are genuinely hard to get anybody out for: a restoration franchise is geared to insurance work and a general contractor wants a rebuild, so people ring six numbers and get nowhere. That gap is most of why this page exists. Send a photograph and somebody comes and looks.

The bigger one: who does what, in what order

A fire with a claim behind it has a sequence, and getting it out of order wastes money.

Fire department, then your insurer. In that order, before anybody else.
A restoration contractor for the first week — board-up, tarping, pulling out the water, soot removal, odor work. They should be set up for nights; we are not, and we will say so rather than take the booking.
A structural engineer, if the framing, roof structure or a load-bearing wall took heat. Charred framing that is sound gets cleaned and sealed. Deciding whether it is sound is not a handyman's call.
The rebuild. Drywall, ceilings, trim, doors, floors, paint. Ordinary construction work on a house that is now clean and empty — and this is the half we do.

Worth knowing before you get a quote: a significant fire rebuild can need a permit and a licensed residential builder. This company holds no residential builder license, and where that is what your job needs you will be told before a quote is written rather than after one is signed.

What moves the price

How far the smoke went, which is nearly always further than the fire. One burnt wall and four smoke-stained rooms is a four-room job.
What burned. A fast flaming fire leaves dry, powdery soot that cleans comparatively well. A slow smoldering fire, or anything with plastics or cooking oil in it, leaves a greasy film that is the hardest thing on this list to get out of a surface and out of a smell.
Whether firefighting water is in it too, and how long it sat.
How much porous material is in the room. A tiled kitchen and a carpeted bedroom with upholstered furniture are different problems at the same square footage.
Whether the odor and structural work is already done, or whether we are the first trade through the door.
Ceiling or wall, height, access, and whether the room can be emptied.

Seven things to do before anybody arrives

Photograph everything before it is cleaned or thrown out — including the ceilings and the rooms the fire never reached. Smoke evidence disappears first and gets asked about last.
Ventilate, but do not run the furnace or the air conditioning. See above. This one matters more than the rest put together.
Do not wipe soot with a wet cloth or a household spray. Dry first, always.
Do not paint anything, and do not let anybody paint anything.
Get the porous things out now — carpet, pad, curtains, bedding, upholstered furniture.
Change the furnace filter, and change it again a week later.
Do not throw out anything you want paid for until it is photographed and on a list.

Where this work stops

Said plainly, because a fire page that implies a restoration crew is the one page where overstating would be actively dangerous. No night number, no board-up, no tarping, no extraction crew — hours are Monday to Friday. No structural assessment. No whole-house odor remediation. No claim handling and no billing your insurer. Electrical work is like-for-like replacement of a burnt fitting or receptacle; the cause of an electrical fire, any new circuit and a heat-damaged panel are a licensed electrician's and get named on the quote. Contents — furniture, clothing, documents, electronics — go to a contents specialist.

In a house built before about the mid-eighties, fire-damaged plaster, old texture and old floor tile get sampled before they are disturbed. Popcorn ceiling removal explains what that involves.

Book it

Book a free quote · call 517-505-7135 · or read more about fire and smoke damage repair.
Water as well as fire, which is usual? Water damage repair.
Serving Lansing, East Lansing, Okemos, Haslett, Holt and the rest of Greater Lansing.