Fast, Reliable Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Across San Martin
Fire and smoke damage restoration in San Martin usually costs between $2,800 and $7,500 for a typical kitchen fire, with whole-home smoke remediation running higher depending on square footage and how far soot traveled. Most jobs in the 95046 zip code can be started within 24 to 48 hours once Santa Clara County issues the permit. If you’re standing in a smoke-damaged house right now, call Wade Ferris directly at (855) 915-0646. He answers his own phone, and he’ll give you a straight answer about what needs to happen next.
We know San Martin’s homes because we work in them. Custom rural estates off Santa Teresa Boulevard, older farmhouses on large parcels, detached workshops and barns that share walls with nothing but open field. Fire doesn’t move the same way through a 1950s ranch on well and septic as it does through a tract home in Morgan Hill. Neither does smoke. That’s the whole reason this page exists: to give San Martin homeowners a fire and smoke restoration plan built for unincorporated, septic-dependent, custom-home realities, not the generic municipal-sewer playbook used in Morgan Hill.
Why Wade’s Restoration of California Is San Martin’s Preferred Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Company
Wade Ferris founded Wade’s Restoration of California in 2007 and put his own name on the truck. He still answers his cell at midnight. When a San Martin homeowner calls about smoke damage, Wade’s the one who picks up, asks about the house, and heads out with the right equipment instead of a generic crew that’s never driven Santa Teresa Boulevard. Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration is not a side service for us. It’s what we do every week in San Martin, Gilroy, and the surrounding rural county.
Homeowners around here tend to be skeptical, and we respect that. You’ve probably heard stories about national chains that quote one number on the phone and another at the door. We don’t work that way. You get a written scope before work starts, a daily moisture and soot log while the job runs, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise stamped on every fire restoration contract. If it’s not done right, Wade makes it right. No argument, no runaround. Ask anyone on your street who’s used us.
We’re IICRC-certified and RIA-affiliated. Our crews run Dri-Eaz and Phoenix equipment, because that gear pulls soot and odor out of custom woodwork without trashing the finish. San Martin homes have a lot of hand-carved carriage-house doors, custom millwork, and high-end cabinetry that generic restoration companies don’t know how to protect. We do. We’ve restored enough of them to know which deodorizers will warp a stain and which won’t.
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Services in San Martin
Smoke & Soot Removal
Soot from a house fire is acidic and it keeps eating into wood, drywall, and painted surfaces long after the flames are out. In San Martin’s older farmhouses and custom estates, that means hand-carved door frames, exposed beams, and custom cabinetry are at immediate risk. We clean soot from every surface using HEPA air scrubbers and chemical sponges matched to the substrate. On high-end wood, we don’t blast it with anything aggressive. We lift it out slowly so the grain stays intact and the original finish survives.

Odor Removal & Deodorization
Smoke odor in a San Martin home doesn’t just sit in the air. It soaks into the pores of wood doors, the insulation in attic spaces, and the duct work that snakes through older ranch houses. Thermal fogging and ozone treatment work, but only when the technician knows how the house is built. A detached barn or workshop with no vapor barrier holds smoke differently than a sealed custom home. We tailor the deodorization to the structure, and we match whatever sealant or stain the original finish used. Generic chemicals that discolor high-end wood are not part of our inventory.

Contents Cleaning & Pack-Out
When a San Martin home has a fire, the contents of closets, kitchens, and garage workshops often carry more smoke damage than the structure itself. We pack out contents, inventory them with photo documentation, and clean them off-site using ultrasonic equipment. That means custom window treatments, family photos, tools in the barn, and rugs from the living room all get treated properly. We coordinate directly with your insurance adjuster so you’re never the one relaying numbers and scope changes between two sides. Your contents come back cleaned and documented, or we tell you honestly what can’t be saved and show you why.

Emergency Board-Up & Tarping
The first 24 hours after a fire are when San Martin properties lose the most value. Open walls and missing windows let rain, rodents, and opportunistic theft into an already damaged house. We board up and tarp immediately. If the fire happened on a Friday night and Santa Clara County’s permit office won’t open until Monday, we still secure the property right away. Board-up is not permit-dependent and we won’t make you wait while smoke keeps circulating through the house.

What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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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 San Martin
Wade’s crew works on every brand of door you’ll find in San Martin, from hand-carved carriage-house doors on custom estates to standard overhead doors on mid-century ranch homes. We stock common parts locally so we’re not waiting on a warehouse in Sacramento while smoke odor keeps settling deeper into your woodwork. Our team is IICRC-certified and we run Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, and Injectidry equipment on fire jobs because that gear is built to handle soot and moisture without damaging the surfaces underneath. If you’ve got a smart-home-integrated opener on a detached workshop, we service those too, and we recalibrate sensors after smoke exposure so the door works quietly like it did before the fire.
Common Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Problems We See in San Martin Homes
- Smoke-damaged custom carriage-house doors and millwork: San Martin has a higher concentration of hand-carved and custom-stained wood doors than neighboring cities. Standard fire restoration companies sand and reseal them like tract-home trim, which ruins the original finish. We match the stain and sealant before we touch anything.
- Septic and well contamination from firefighting water: When a fire gets put out, the water that soaked through the floor has to go somewhere. In San Martin, that means a private leach field, not a municipal sewer. If smoke-tainted water enters the septic system, it needs to be assessed and sometimes pumped. Most restoration companies don’t even ask about this. We do, because we work here.
- Smoke spread through detached workshops and barns: San Martin properties often include a detached barn, workshop, or ADU that shares air with nothing else. Smoke travels differently through those structures, especially when they lack vapor barriers. We scope each outbuilding separately instead of treating the whole property as one job.
- Delayed permits because San Martin is unincorporated: Fire restoration permits in San Martin run through Santa Clara County’s building department, not a city hall. That timeline is longer than Morgan Hill or Gilroy residents face, and if you don’t factor it in, smoke-damaged wood and drywall keep absorbing soot for an extra week. We build that lead time into every San Martin schedule from day one.
Pricing for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in San Martin, CA
Here’s what San Martin homeowners should expect to pay, based on the scope of the work:
- Emergency board-up and tarping: $400 to $1,200 depending on openings and roof condition.
- Smoke and soot removal from a single room: $1,800 to $4,500.
- Whole-home odor removal and deodorization: $3,500 to $9,000 depending on square footage and how many outbuildings are involved.
- Contents cleaning and pack-out: $1,500 to $6,000 for a typical 3-bedroom home, higher if you have a workshop or barn full of equipment.
- Full structural fire repair including drywall, framing, and finish carpentry: $15,000 to $75,000+ depending on fire size and custom finish level.
These are real numbers from jobs we’ve done in San Martin and the surrounding 95046 area. What changes the price is how far smoke traveled, whether custom woodwork needs stain matching, and whether your septic or well system got involved. Call (855) 915-0646 and Wade will walk you through a written estimate before any work starts. No trip charge inside Santa Clara County, and if you already have a written estimate from another company, we’ll give you a free second opinion.
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Process in San Martin
Our crew recently responded to a fire in a custom rural estate off Santa Teresa Boulevard where smoke had infiltrated a detached workshop’s smart-home-integrated door opener and soot had settled into hand-carved carriage-house doors. We used HEPA air scrubbers and Injectidry panels to pull soot from the wood grain, then matched the original custom stain before recalibrating the opener’s quiet-close sensor so the door operated without a hitch. That’s how we work on every San Martin job: assess the structure, identify every surface smoke reached, and restore it rather than rip it out and bill the insurance company for replacement.
On septic-involved fires, we coordinate with Santa Clara County Environmental Health before we open walls or run water. That step simply doesn’t exist for neighboring Morgan Hill or Gilroy jobs, and skipping it can leave a homeowner with a contaminated leach field and no idea it happened. We don’t skip it. We’re Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in San Martin, done the way San Martin actually needs it done.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Martin
Wade’s Restoration of California covers all of South Santa Clara County. If you’re in San Martin, we’re already nearby. We also serve Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Interlaken, and Watsonville with the same owner-on-site approach and the same 90-Day Done Right Promise.
Serving San Martin, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Martin 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 San Martin
All fire restoration permits in San Martin run through Santa Clara County’s building department rather than a city hall. That means the review timeline is typically longer than what neighboring Morgan Hill or Gilroy residents experience, and if a fire involved your private septic system, County Environmental Health has to sign off on the water-loss portion too. We build both steps into your schedule from the first day so smoke-damaged wood isn’t sitting exposed waiting on paperwork. Call (855) 915-0646 and we’ll tell you exactly what your permit timeline looks like before you sign anything.
Yes, in most San Martin homes the original wood can be saved. We use HEPA air scrubbers and low-pressure injection to pull soot out of the grain, then match the original stain and sealant rather than sanding it down to bare wood. Replacement is only necessary when the fire itself charred or structurally weakened the door. Call (855) 915-0646 for a free on-site assessment of your custom doors and millwork.
Firefighting water that floods through a San Martin home drains into the property’s own septic system, not a municipal sewer. That water can carry smoke residue, soot, and chemicals from the fire into your leach field. If it’s not identified and addressed, the contamination stays on your property. We check for this on every fire job, and we coordinate with Santa Clara County Environmental Health when a septic system is involved. No other restoration company in the area makes this a standard part of the scope.
Barns and workshops without vapor barriers hold smoke differently than sealed homes. The odor penetrates raw framing, hay, feed, and unfinished plywood, and it doesn’t respond to the same deodorizers used inside a house. We use thermal fogging combined with targeted ozone treatment in those spaces, then seal the structural wood so the smell doesn’t return when the next heat wave hits. Getting an exact quote for your outbuilding is a phone call away at (855) 915-0646.
Yes. We pack out, inventory, and photo-document every item from high-end San Martin homes, including custom drapes, wool rugs, leather furniture, and workshop equipment from detached garages. Items are cleaned off-site with ultrasonic equipment and returned with documentation you can hand directly to your insurance adjuster. If you want an exact price for your contents, call (855) 915-0646 and we’ll give you a written estimate.
Written by Wade Ferris, Owner at Wade’s Restoration of California, serving San Martin and South Santa Clara County since 2007.