Extreme cleaners: Restoring a home after a crime or disaster

The headlines are familiar. A devastating fire guts a home. Floods ravage a neighborhood. A homicide leaves a bloody mess.

Enter, the extreme cleaners — professionals in hazmat suits or crews armed with state-of-the-art equipment — ready to salvage what they can and wipe away all signs of the catastrophe.

While insurance companies pay for everything listed in a policy, it takes a little more than a rag and bucket of Clorox to clean and restore a damaged or gutted structure and salvage people’s possessions.

Here’s what you should know about deep-cleaning homes after a flood, disaster or crime.

Full disclosure required

Potential homebuyers are legally privy to any information about events that occurred in a dwelling that has undergone extreme cleaning or renovation. According to Lisa M. Strollo, a licensed real estate associate broker with Signature Premier Properties, brokers must disclose any knowledge of damage caused by fire, flood, or any adverse condition.

"Fire damage, for example, is covered by the buyer’s homeowner insurance policy, which is a condition to receiving a mortgage," Strollo said. "If there was a prior fire and the home was not repaired properly, it should be evident when the home is inspected."

While real estate agents do not get involved in the nuts and bolts of rehabilitated properties, they do encourage potential buyers to seek proof of proper damage remediation.

Time is of essence

There is a mandated response time for plumbers, contractors and restoration companies.

"Time is of the essence during home disasters, especially if the structure has been flooded," said restoration specialist Matt Forman, a general contractor and owner of Forman Construction in Massapequa. "Once the homeowners call their contractor or plumber, they must respond to the work within 24 hours to assess the damage."

Sometimes, homeowners have no option but to act themselves.

When Margherita Prestia’s Massapequa home was flooded during superstorm Sandy, she saw firsthand how essential it was to act quickly to save her home when she couldn’t reach the insurance company.

"You can never imagine walking into your house and seeing the chaos that took place," Prestia said. "We did everything ourselves because, at the time, there was such mass destruction that insurance companies were in transit to so many people. We were told to take pictures and then just start gutting."

Prestia and her husband drained 2 feet of water in their Colonial home and then began removing flooring and walls down to the beams. After demolition and the removal of mold, the Prestias dried and reinsulated the affected areas using water-resistant spray foam insulation.

"People who waited for the insurance checks had to suffer more damage and loss to their homes," said Prestia, who decided to pay out of pocket for her renovations and materials, which were astronomically high because of price gouging. "We didn’t know about lifting our house to prevent future flood damage, or that restoration companies existed back then."

Restoring a home

As a remediation and restoration company, True Restorations of Farmingdale works to reverse water, smoke, fire and mold damage to a home, or when it is the scene of a crime or trauma. Owner Frank Ranieri’s goal is to "make it as seamless of a transition from the worst day of your life to getting back to where it was before that happened."

"The hardest thing to deal with is the psychological part," said Ranieri about homes struck by tragedy.

True Restorations relies heavily on pictures of the home or business to see what it looked like, also using computer programs and apps. Restoring a home could take up to a year, depending on the extent of the damage.

"The time-consuming part is getting the proper approvals," Ranieri said, "determining the cause of the damage and coverage, having an engineer draw up plans and submit them for approval, pulling permits … then everything is ordered for renovation."

Valuables and necessities

Many tend to worry about damage to expensive items in a fire or disaster. Only when they get back into the grind of their daily lives do they realize the importance of necessities, such as clothing.

Capitol Garment Restoration cleans homeowners’ belongings after a disaster.

"We take care of soft goods like clothes and bedding as well as curtains, carpeting, shoes, and handbags," said Debbie Holmes, business developer and director of marketing and sales. "Everything is either deep cleaned on-site or taken to our warehouse in Ronkonkoma, which has 10,000 square feet for storage and cleaning services."

Capitol prefers to treat the affected areas with ozone, which is considered highly effective in fire and smoke damage.

"Ozone gas gets pumped into a chamber to get rid of the smell. It acts about 3,000 times faster than chlorine as a cleaning agent and bactericide," said Anthony Campagna, a company partner. "We also have massive washers and other kinds of cleaning equipment in our 6,500-square-foot facility for cleaning alone."

Capitol can arrive on-site within an hour and assess the situation. Then a team removes everything from the dwelling as quickly as possible.

"Some sensitive items … are very old, passed down from generation to generation, so getting the trust of the homeowner is vital," Campagna said.

Insurance adjusters and clients favor restoration companies because their goal is often to clean or salvage a home before deeming something a total loss. "About 90% of damaged items are covered by insurance, which falls under content coverage," Campagna said. "Take your house, flip it upside down and whatever falls out is content."

Restoring memories

Pete and Deana Caraballo mitigate, clean and restore various types of artwork spoiled by fire, smoke, water, mold, vandalism and other such damage in residential and commercial properties. The husband-and-wife team have been running their restoration company Art Recovery Technologies, or ART, of New York City and Long Island, for more than four years.

"The chemicals and products used to clean a homeowner's property depend on the peril and the medium, as there are many different variables," said Deana Caraballo. "Most of our cleaning products range from benign household solutions to a few proprietary ones."

ART remedies anything from paintings, works on paper, sculptures and photographs to textiles and other decorative items like porcelain or glass, she said.

"We have a hydroxy generator that kills mold spores and dries the item out safely in our drying room. This process takes place over a slow period, and after that, it depends on what you’re left with after the damage," Pete Caraballo said.

Insurance companies first contact the Caraballos and their team at their Holbrook office, who then go through the home and follow the insurance adjuster’s instructions on what items to take. The Caraballos then submit an estimate of the item to an insurance carrier for approval before cleaning and restoring it.

"A lot of decorative art is made with a hard, nonporous surface, which can go either way with water or fire damage," Deana Caraballo said. "If it’s porous, it’s easier to be damaged by fire, smoke, and puff back."

The company can realize claims as quickly as two weeks.

"We can remove odor and clean soot and smoke damage, which is a little easier to address than water," Deana Caraballo said. "Our team of trained artists assists with these projects, which are then packaged, wrapped, and stored in our climate-controlled warehouse."

Cleaners need certification

Cleaning and restoration experts must be certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, or IIRC. The Las Vegas-based nonprofit assists in training remediation companies in various types of property damage.

Forman, for example, was required to obtain multiple licenses for his work.

"It just made sense to get into this part of the business as well. I’ve done a lot of fire and flood restoration work throughout the years, but never the drying and cleaning," said Forman, who holds a Nassau County license and took several courses to qualify for the IIRC certifications.

COVID-19 precautions

Cleaners and restorers entering a home must wear proper PPE.

Most cleaning companies use high-efficiency particulate absorbing, or HEPA, filters, which catch most airborne particles.

"We can do virtual inspections so adjusters don’t have to come out and do it," Ranieri said.

As for house showings, Strollo added that many sellers request no more than two people in the house at a time and sometimes require masks and booties.

"After showings, the air is sprayed with Lysol, and light switches, railings, and doorknobs are wiped down with alcohol. A clean, sanitized home is more important than ever," Strollo said.

Protecting evidence

If there is a crime or death, restoration companies are not allowed into the home until investigations are completed.

"We could potentially contaminate something or ruin evidence, but our goal is to make it as if they can see nothing happened," said Ranieri.