Lexington Fire Damage Restoration

After the fire trucks leave a Lexington home, what remains is a structure that is wet from suppression water, coated in acidic soot and saturated with smoke odor, often with openings to the weather. Water Restoration connects you with local fire damage restoration crews that secure the property, remove the water, clean the soot, eliminate the odor and rebuild.

Properties in Lexington (Lexington County) range over older homes along the original streets, newer subdivisions, rural properties on the outskirts and small businesses downtown. Cooking fires are the leading cause year-round, with electrical and heating fires rising in the cooler months.

Types of fire losses in Lexington, SC

Property owners in Lexington deal with the same regional risks found throughout South Carolina. South Carolina's Lowcountry floods from storm surge and extreme rainfall, the Midlands and Upstate see flash flooding and severe storms, and year-round humidity keeps crawlspaces damp enough to grow mold. Air-conditioning condensate leaks are a frequent cause of ceiling damage. Problems tend to peak during hurricane season (june through november), but plumbing failures and appliance leaks happen in every month of the year.

• Electrical shorts in humid attics and crawlspaces
• Electrical fires when power is restored to water-damaged wiring after a storm
• Smoke damage from a fire in a neighboring home or apartment unit
• Candle and holiday decoration fires
• Grill and outdoor cooking fires that spread to siding and decks
• Small fires that were extinguished quickly but filled the house with smoke
• Lightning strikes and downed power lines during severe storms
• Lightning-caused attic and roof fires

The first 48 hours after a fire

Soot is acidic. Within hours it discolors plastics and countertops; within days it etches glass, pits metal and permanently stains grout. Smoke odor penetrates drywall, insulation and upholstered contents and becomes harder to remove each day. Meanwhile the water used to put out the fire is soaking into the same materials, starting the mold clock that every water loss faces.

Emergency services on the first visit typically include board-up and tarping, water extraction, HEPA air filtration, protection of unaffected areas and an initial inventory of contents, with full cleaning and reconstruction following.

How fire restoration works

1. Emergency contact and safety check. Once the fire department releases the property, the crew evaluates structural stability, utilities and air quality.
2. Board-up, tarping and security. Windows, doors and roof openings are sealed against weather, animals and intruders.
3. Water removal and drying. Suppression water is extracted and the structure dried to prevent secondary damage and mold.
4. Soot and smoke removal. Surfaces are cleaned with dry sponges, HEPA vacuuming and the chemistry matched to the type of residue; ductwork is cleaned.
5. Contents processing. Furniture, clothing, electronics and documents are inventoried, cleaned where possible and stored until the home is ready.
6. Odor removal with thermal fogging, hydroxyl or ozone and sealing of structural surfaces, followed by full reconstruction.

Contents: what is cleanable and what is not

More than most people expect. Glass, ceramics, metal and sealed wood clean well. Many textiles are restorable with specialty laundering and ozone. Electronics that were not exposed to heat can often be cleaned and tested, and documents and photos can be freeze-dried. Items generally not salvageable include food and medicine exposed to heat or smoke, melted plastics, mattresses, particleboard furniture and heavily sooted drywall and insulation.

Pricing, estimates and insurance claims

The cost of fire damage restoration depends on the size of the fire, the type of smoke residue, how far it traveled through the building and how much of the structure and contents can be cleaned rather than replaced.

Fire and smoke are covered perils in essentially every homeowners and commercial property policy, and most policies include additional living expenses if the property cannot be occupied during repairs.

Ask the crew to walk you through the estimate and the claim process; good documentation from day one is the best way to get a claim paid.

Areas we serve in and around Lexington

Coverage in Lexington includes ZIP codes 29071, 29072 and 29073, along with the rest of Lexington County.

The same crews also serve nearby communities including West Columbia (5 mi), Gilbert (9 mi), Cayce (10 mi), Gaston (10 mi), Pelion (11 mi), Irmo (12 mi), Ballentine (13 mi), Leesville (13 mi), Columbia (14 mi) and Chapin (14 mi). If you are just outside Lexington, call anyway; coverage areas overlap.

Why call Water Restoration

• We route you to a local company that already works in Lexington and Lexington County
• The companies we work with deal with insurance adjusters daily and can bill covered mitigation directly to your carrier
• Calls are answered 24 hours a day, including nights, weekends and holidays
• There is no cost or obligation to call and talk through what you are seeing
• One number covers water, fire, smoke, mold, sewage and biohazard emergencies