Fast, Reliable Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Across Florence-Graham
Fire damage in Florence-Graham rarely stops at the flames. It moves into the plaster, the framing, the crawl space, and the neighbor’s side of the wall if you share one. We handle the whole sequence, from the first board-up on a tight Compton Avenue lot to the final county inspection sign-off. If you’re standing in a smoke-damaged living room right now wondering who to call, call Wade at (855) 915-0646. He answers his own phone and he’ll be on the road to Florence-Graham within the hour.
Most houses here were built before 1950, which means the smoke and soot you’re looking at is sitting on top of lead paint, asbestos ceiling tiles, and wiring that was old when your grandparents bought the place. That changes how cleanup has to be done. It also means the contractor you hire needs to know LA County rules, not City of LA rules. We do. Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Florence-Graham is not a one-size-fits-all job, and we’ve never treated it like one.
Key Takeaways:
- Emergency board-up and tarping available same-day across Florence-Graham, 90001.
- All fire restoration permits here go through LA County Building and Safety, not a city hall.
- Pre-1950s bungalows trigger asbestos and lead testing before demolition or sanding.
- We deal directly with your adjuster and hand you every test result and moisture log.
- Free estimate, no trip charge inside the county, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing.
Why Wade’s Restoration of California Is Florence-Graham’s Preferred Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Company
Wade Ferris founded this company in 2007 and put his name on the truck because he planned to stay. He is not a franchise. He is not a rotating crew from a call center. He is the person who shows up at 2 a.m. when a kitchen fire off Santa Fe Avenue leaves a family standing in the driveway, and he is the person you will run into again at the market on Firestone Boulevard. Nobody hides behind a logo when their last name is on the side of the van.
Florence-Graham residents tell us the same thing after every job: the adjuster said one thing, the first company said another, and nobody could explain why a “simple” smoke cleanup needed county hazmat clearance. We explain it. In plain language. Before work starts. You get a written scope, a clear price, and a copy of every test result the county requires. No mystery, no surprise add-ons at the door.
Response time matters more here than in a cul-de-sac suburb. Florence-Graham streets are narrow, parking is tight, and an open roofline after a fire is an invitation for winter rain and worse. Wade keeps equipment staged and crews on standby so board-up happens fast, usually within a few hours of your first call. We have worked this zip code long enough to know which alleys a box truck can clear and which ones need a smaller rig. That is not a detail a national outfit thinks about until they are stuck.
Our standing on this street is built the old way. We did the house three doors down. We fixed the duplex on the next block. Ask anyone on your street. Then call (855) 915-0646 and talk to Wade yourself.
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Services in Florence-Graham
Emergency Board-Up & Tarping
After a fire, your home is open. Open to weather, open to looters, open to more damage than the fire itself caused. We board up and tarp within hours, not days. On a tight Florence-Graham street with alley parking and zero setback between houses, that means using smaller panel cuts and side-loading rigs that can actually get to the structure. We do it every week here.

Smoke & Soot Removal
Smoke in a 1930s bungalow does not stay in one room. It travels through original plaster walls, open framing gaps, and shared attic spaces. In attached duplexes along Compton Avenue, we treat both sides of the party wall, because soot settles into cavities you cannot see from the burned unit. We use HEPA filtration and Dri-Eaz air scrubbers to pull particulate out of the air while we clean surfaces by hand.

Odor Removal & Deodorization
If you can still smell the fire three weeks later, the smoke found somewhere to hide. In Florence-Graham’s older homes, that is usually the crawl space, the wall cavities, or the original wood subfloor. We do not cover odor. We find the source, remove the charred material, and then run thermal fogging or ozone treatment where it is safe to do so. The smell does not come back if the source is gone.

Contents Cleaning & Pack-Out
Furniture, clothing, dishes, curtains. Smoke gets into everything, even in rooms the fire never touched. We inventory, photograph, pack out, and clean your belongings at our facility, then store them until your home is ready. Your adjuster gets the full inventory with photos. You get to see exactly what left your house and exactly what comes back.

What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Florence-Graham
We work on all makes and models of door openers, but in Florence-Graham we see the same brands repeat: Chamberlain, LiftMaster, Genie, Craftsman. Most of these homes use rolling-code remotes and wall-mounted openers that raise and lower a panel door. We keep common parts stocked for fast turnaround on smoke-seized tracks and heat-warped opener gears, because a garage door that will not close after a fire is a security problem, not just an inconvenience. We are certified through IICRC and affiliated with RIA, and we run Dri-Eaz and Injectidry equipment on every job.
Common Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Problems We See in Florence-Graham Homes
- Knob-and-tube wiring behind original plaster. When a 1940s bungalow has a kitchen fire, the old wiring often shorted first. If we do not trace and verify the circuits are dead and disconnected, power restoration becomes a second fire waiting to happen. We check this before we touch a wall.
- Asbestos and lead clearance delays. Florence-Graham’s housing stock predates 1978, which means LA County requires asbestos and lead testing before any demolition, sanding, or structural repair. If you hire someone who skips this step, the county inspector will stop the job. We pull the tests first and hand you the results.
- Shared wall smoke migration in attached duplexes. Many homes here are side-by-side duplexes with original open framing between units. Soot and odor travel through wall cavities into the neighbor’s side. We treat the entire cavity, not just your unit, and we talk to the neighbor’s insurer if needed.
- Winter rain entering through a burned roof before county plan-check clears. LA County plan-check on fire repairs can take longer than a city permit in Huntington Park or South Gate. If the board-up fails or the tarp tears, secondary water damage hits the crawl space and subfloor. We reinforce board-up and monitor until the county allows structural work.
Pricing for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Florence-Graham, CA
Let’s talk real numbers for this market. Emergency board-up and tarping on a typical Florence-Graham bungalow runs $450 to $900 depending on how many openings need covering and whether we are working from a narrow alley. Smoke and soot removal from a single room after a contained kitchen fire usually lands between $1,800 and $3,500. Odor removal and deodorization for a whole house, including crawl space treatment, ranges from $2,500 to $6,000. Contents cleaning and pack-out for a two-bedroom home starts around $2,000 and goes up with volume and fabric type. Full structural fire repair after county permitting runs $8,000 to $40,000 or more depending on scope.
What moves the price: the age of the home (asbestos and lead clearance adds testing and disposal costs), the size of the affected area, whether the crawl space took smoke or water, and how much of the original framing must be removed. We give you a written line-item estimate before any work starts. Call (855) 915-0646 for a free estimate, and remember there is no trip charge inside the county.
We Also Serve Cities Near Florence-Graham
While this page is for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Florence-Graham, our crews regularly work in Huntington Park, Walnut Park, Willowbrook, and South Gate. Most of those are incorporated cities with their own building departments, which actually makes permitting slightly different than what we described above for unincorporated Florence-Graham. Same crew, same equipment, same 90-Day Done Right Promise.
Serving Florence-Graham, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Florence-Graham area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Florence-Graham
Plan-check with LA County Building and Safety typically adds 5 to 15 business days to a structural fire repair permit in Florence-Graham, compared to 3 to 10 business days in an incorporated city like Huntington Park that runs its own building department. The county is also stricter about asbestos and lead documentation before issuing the permit. We submit the full test package up front, which clears a lot of the delay. The key is not waiting until after demolition to pull samples. We pull them during the board-up phase. Call (855) 915-0646 and we will walk you through the exact sequence for your address.
Yes, if any demolition, sanding, or structural removal is part of the smoke damage cleanup, LA County will require an asbestos survey and lead paint assessment before work begins. The county will not issue a permit without it. If the cleanup is surface-only and no wall or ceiling material is disturbed, a full asbestos survey may not be required. We assess this on-site and tell you honestly whether the survey is mandatory or can wait. Most 1940s bungalows in Florence-Graham have enough original material that the survey is the safer call, and your insurance adjuster will usually approve the testing cost when we document the age of the home.
Yes, we do this regularly. The trick is treating the shared wall cavity as its own work zone. We seal the burned unit’s side, set up negative air pressure so soot does not push into the neighbor’s side, and clean the full cavity rather than just the visible surface. If the fire damaged original framing that runs through both units, we coordinate with the neighbor and their insurer directly. You do not have to be the messenger. That is part of what you pay us for.
Yes, it will, especially in the old bungalows here. Crawl spaces under Florence-Graham homes are often open-framed, shallow, and connected to wall cavities that rise all the way to the attic. Smoke gets pulled into the crawl space by the same draft that cools the house, then drifts up through wall gaps into rooms the fire never reached. If we do not treat the crawl space, the smell comes back. We inspect below the floor on every fire job in this area.
We come in a smaller box truck and work from the alley or the sidewalk, whichever gives us safe access. On Compton Avenue and similar narrow streets, we stage panels on the curb side of the rig and use a two-person carry to the structure. We have done it enough times in Florence-Graham that we know which corners a liftgate can drop and which ones block a neighbor’s driveway. The board-up goes up same-day in almost every case, and we always leave the neighbor’s access clear.
Call Wade’s Restoration of California for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Florence-Graham
A fire in Florence-Graham is not a phone-menu problem. It is a your-house-is-open problem. Call Wade at (855) 915-0646. You get a live person, a straight answer, and a crew that knows LA County rules before they ever touch your front door. Free estimate, no trip charge inside the county, and a written 90-Day Done Right Promise on every fire job. We have been doing this since 2007. We will be doing it in Florence-Graham for a long time.
Written by Wade Ferris, Owner at Wade’s Restoration of California, serving Florence-Graham and surrounding communities.