Fast, Reliable Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Across Old Fig Garden
Fire and smoke damage in Old Fig Garden hits different than it does in newer parts of Fresno. The neighborhood’s 1910s-1940s homes, with their original lath-and-plaster walls and multi-coat decorative ceilings, soak up smoke like a sponge and hold onto it for decades if the restoration crew doesn’t understand historic construction. Wade’s Restoration has worked on enough Spanish Colonial Revivals and Tudor Revivals here to know exactly what that means. When a kitchen fire in Old Fig Garden leaves soot behind the original plaster, standard surface cleaning won’t cut it. Call Wade directly at (855) 915-0646 and he’ll head out to assess it himself, usually within the hour.
Why Wade’s Restoration of California Is Old Fig Garden’s Preferred Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Company
Wade Ferris started this company in 2007 with a simple idea: the guy whose name is on the truck should be the guy who shows up. Ask anyone on Van Ness Boulevard or along Rialto or West Bluff whether that still happens, and you’ll get the same answer. Wade answers his own phone at midnight. When a fire job comes in from the 93704 zip code, he doesn’t route it through a call center. He gets in the truck.
That matters in Old Fig Garden more than most places, because the homes here aren’t interchangeable drywall boxes. A crew that treats a 1927 Craftsman like a 2005 stucco tract house will ruin finishes that can never be replaced, and the homeowner won’t know until the ghost stains come back three months later and the acrid smell returns in summer heat. Wade’s crew is IICRC-certified and RIA-affiliated, and they run Dri-Eaz and XPOWER equipment sized correctly for thick plaster, not thin drywall. That’s the difference between restoring a home and hiding damage until it resurfaces.
Wade also puts the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing on every fire restoration contract in Old Fig Garden. If it’s not done right, he makes it right. No fine print, no argument. He’s run into the same homeowners at the hardware store on Saturdays for years, and that’s the oldest accountability mechanism there is.
Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Services in Old Fig Garden
We provide the full range of our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration services to Old Fig Garden homeowners, but three areas matter most here because of how these older homes are built. Read through them, and you’ll see why the standard playbook doesn’t work on Van Ness or West Bluff.
Smoke & Soot Removal
Soot on a modern painted drywall wall wipes off with a chemical sponge, mostly. Soot on a hand-troweled 1930s plaster wall embeds into the porous lime coat. Water-based cleaners push it deeper, which is why ghost stains reappear months after a generalist crew finishes. In Old Fig Garden, we map where heat and smoke traveled using thermal imaging behind the lath, then soda-blast the decorative plaster or limewash-encapsulate behind the original finish. That’s the only way to neutralize what’s already soaked in.
Odor Removal & Deodorization
The acrid smoke smell in an Old Fig Garden Tudor Revival doesn’t live in the air. It lives in the ornamental plaster ceilings, the old-growth fir floors, the uninsulated wall cavities, and the antique brass registers. We run HEPA air scrubbers from Dri-Eaz and XPOWER long enough to actually matter, often 72 hours or more, and we seal off HVAC returns before any demolition starts so soot doesn’t migrate through original wall cavities. Then we seal residual odor with a vapor-permeable shellac that locks it in without trapping moisture behind old plaster.
Structural Fire Repair
When fire has compromised framing, lath, or original fir floorboards in a 1920s Old Fig Garden home, we do our Reconstruction & Cleanup in Old Fig Garden carefully. Old-growth fir behaves differently than modern lumber. Running aggressive dehumidifiers too fast after a fire can crack boards and delaminate original varnish, turning a smoke job into a full floor replacement we could have avoided. We dry old materials on their own schedule, not a production timetable, and everything goes in writing before work starts.
Contents Cleaning & Pack-Out
Furniture, rugs, books, and antiques from an Old Fig Garden house fire carry smoke damage into every room we clean. We pack out what can be restored, run contents through professional-grade cleaning systems off-site, and inventory everything with photo documentation so your insurance adjuster sees exactly what left and what came back. If the item is a century-old family piece, we’ll say so up front and handle it as such.
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 Old Fig Garden
We don’t bring rental-store equipment into Old Fig Garden’s historic homes. We run professional-grade gear from Dri-Eaz, XPOWER, and Injectidry, sized and configured for thick plaster and old-growth wood rather than modern drywall. The certifications behind the work are IICRC, RIA, and IFA, which means the people in your house have been trained on restoration standards most general contractors never see. For Old Fig Garden customers, that equipment and training is what preserves the irreplaceable.
Common Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration Problems We See in Old Fig Garden Homes
- Ghost stains from water-based cleaners. A crew treating plaster like drywall uses water-based cleaners that push soot deeper into the porous lime coat. The stain vanishes for a few weeks, then reappears as the plaster breathes. We see this constantly on jobs where another company “finished” the work six months earlier.
- Cupped or cracked fir floors from aggressive drying. Fires soak floors with water and smoke. Running dehumidifiers full-blast on old-growth fir pulls moisture out too fast, cracking boards and delaminating varnish. Old Fig Garden’s fir floors need slow, staged drying.
- Soot migration through uninsulated wall cavities. If HVAC returns aren’t sealed before demolition, soot travels through the original uninsulated cavities in these 1910s-1940s homes and settles inside wall voids and antique brass registers. Once it’s there, odor removal becomes nearly impossible after rebuild.
- Mismatched drying times for plaster assemblies. A 1930s lath-and-plaster wall releases moisture on a completely different schedule than a drywall wall. Techs who don’t know the difference either stop drying too early or over-dry the wood lath behind the plaster. Both mistakes cost Old Fig Garden homeowners thousands.
Pricing for Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Old Fig Garden, CA
Fire cleanup in Old Fig Garden typically runs $2,800-$8,500 depending on the size of the burned area and how far smoke traveled. Smoke and soot removal on a single room with original plaster walls runs $1,200-$3,400, and full odor removal including soda-blasting decorative ceilings can run $4,000-$12,000 when multiple rooms are involved. Contents cleaning and pack-out for a whole house typically lands between $3,000 and $9,000. Structural fire repair is scoped in writing like a remodel, because it is one. No trip charge inside our own county, a free second opinion on any written estimate, and a permanent Senior & Veteran 10% discount. Call (855) 915-0646 and Wade will give you an honest number.
We Also Serve Cities Near Old Fig Garden
Wade’s Restoration works throughout Old Fig Garden and the surrounding Central Valley communities. If you’re in Fresno, Clovis, Bonadelle Ranchos-Madera Ranchos, or Fowler, the same crew and the same 90-Day Done Right Promise apply. Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from our Fresno, Central Valley office, and crews serve Old Fig Garden locally.
Serving Old Fig Garden, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Old Fig Garden 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 Old Fig Garden
Yes. A 1920s lath-and-plaster wall releases moisture much more slowly than modern drywall, and drying it too fast cracks the plaster and over-dries the wood lath behind it. In Old Fig Garden homes we monitor moisture daily with logs we hand to you at the end, and we adjust the drying schedule to the materials, not the calendar. The correct sequence protects the original finish and prevents ghost stains. Call (855) 915-0646 and Wade will explain exactly what your home needs.
Most old-growth oak floors in Old Fig Garden can be sanded and refinished if they haven’t been over-dried or allowed to cup beyond a recoverable point. The key is slowing the drying process enough that the boards don’t crack or delaminate from the original varnish. We’ve saved original floors in dozens of 1920s and 1930s homes here by refusing to rush that step. Once the floor is ruined, no sanding brings it back, so we treat it carefully from day one.
We seal off the paneling, run HEPA air scrubbers for extended durations, then treat the smoke residue with dry methods rather than water-based cleaners that would push soot into the wood grain. For paneling that has already absorbed odor, we seal with a vapor-permeable shellac that locks in the smell without trapping moisture against the original finish. Gutting original Tudor paneling is the last resort, not the first move.
Treating the home’s original plaster as if it were drywall, which means water-based cleaning, standard drying times, and no allowance for how deeply smoke soaks into porous lime. The result is ghost stains that return in months and a smoke odor that comes back every summer. Our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration team sequences the work for historic materials from the first hour.
Yes. The uninsulated wall cavities and original HVAC registers in these 1910s-1940s homes allow soot to travel far beyond the fire room and settle in places a modern tight house would contain. If returns aren’t sealed before demolition, soot ends up inside wall voids and behind original plaster, which makes odor removal much harder after rebuild. Older knob-and-tube wiring remnants in some homes also require careful inspection before demo starts.
If smoke has gotten into the bones of your Old Fig Garden home, don’t wait until the smell settles in for good. Call Wade at (855) 915-0646 for a free estimate. He’ll come out himself, take a look, and tell you straight what needs to happen.
Written by Wade Ferris, Owner at Wade’s Restoration of California, serving Old Fig Garden and the Central Valley since 2007.