VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Smoke damage cleanup in Virginia Beach
Soot, staining and smoke odor removed from your home or business — including damage from a fire that never reached your unit. We dispatch from Chesapeake, minutes from the Virginia Beach line, 24 hours a day.
Smoke damage is not the same job as fire damage. There may be no burnt structure at all, just black film on the ceilings, ruined contents and a smell that comes back every humid day. Coastal humidity in Kempsville, Great Neck, Hilltop, Sandbridge and the Oceanfront keeps soot residue active, which is why a cleaned room can start smelling again in August if the odor was only masked instead of removed.
The four kinds of smoke damage we see here
Dry / protein soot
Kitchen and stove-top fires leave a thin amber film that smells far worse than it looks. It has to be chemically dissolved — wiping spreads it.
Wet, oily soot
Smoldering plastics, electronics and upholstery leave a greasy black residue that stains drywall and grout permanently if it sits.
Furnace puff-back
Common in older Virginia Beach oil systems — the burner backfires and pushes soot through every supply register in the house at once.
Neighboring-unit smoke
Oceanfront condos and townhomes share attic and wall cavities, so smoke migrates into units the fire never touched.
Each one needs a different cleaning agent. Using the wrong one drives residue deeper into the paint, which is the most common reason a DIY smoke cleanup has to be redone.
What our cleanup looks like
- STEP 1
Contain and stabilize
We seal the affected rooms, run negative air with HEPA filtration and shut down the HVAC so soot stops circulating while we work.
- STEP 2
Test and map the residue
Chem sponge tests tell us which surfaces clean, which need sealing and which have to go. You get that in writing before anything is thrown away.
- STEP 3
Clean structure and contents
Walls, ceilings, trim, cabinet interiors and framing are cleaned to the substrate. Contents are inventoried, photographed and cleaned on site or off site.
- STEP 4
Deodorize, seal, rebuild
Hydroxyl or ozone treatment, duct cleaning, then a stain-blocking sealer before paint. We rebuild anything removed so you deal with one contractor.
Do it before you clean anything
- Photograph every room and every damaged item before it moves.
- Leave the HVAC off — running it spreads soot to untouched rooms.
- Don't wipe walls with a wet cloth; it sets oily soot into the paint.
- Bag food, medication and pet food that was exposed to smoke.
- Keep receipts for anything you buy while you're out of the house.
- Ask your adjuster for the claim number before demolition starts.
Credentials you can check
365 Restoration is a licensed and insured Virginia restoration contractor. Ask us for our license and certificate of insurance before work starts — we send them on request.
- Virginia licensed contractor
- License #2705138091 — verifiable with Virginia DPOR
- IICRC certified firm — water and fire & smoke
- IICRC certified firm #70269754 — water damage restoration (WRT) and fire & smoke restoration (FSRT), with technicians trained to IICRC S500 water, S700 fire and smoke, and S520 mold remediation standards
- EPA Lead-Safe certified firm
- National certification #NAT-F107699-1 for lead paint work and lead remediation
- EPA Lead-Safe certified firm
- National certification #NAT-F348269-1 for lead paint work and lead remediation
- Asbestos awareness certified
- Certificate #NOF178813531-47384-167569
- Bloodborne pathogens certified
- Certificate #NOF-178818052-352-167569
- GoldMorr licensed
- GoldMorr mold and mildew restoration license #20266926479
- GoldMorr Certified Master Technician — mold treatment
- Greg Starling — GoldMorr Certified Master Technician, mold treatment certificate #2026137769
- BOI Environmental ozone & hydroxyl remediation
- Certificate #BOIE-OHR0000051788
- Professional Mold Inspection Institute
- Certified mold remediator #CMR0000051782
- Xactimate certified estimating
- Scopes and estimates written in Xactimate — the platform insurance carriers use
- Fully insured
- General liability and workers' compensation — certificate of insurance on request
- Serving Hampton Roads since 1995
- 31 years restoring homes and businesses in Virginia
Related pages: smoke smell removal in Virginia Beach, fire damage restoration in Virginia Beach, indoor air quality testing and our insurance & adjuster guide.
Free Virginia Beach smoke cleanup & odor removal checklist
A printable PDF with the first 24 hours, what never to do, the professional deodorization sequence and the documentation your insurer will ask for.
Nearby service areas
Our crews dispatch across Hampton Roads and Central Virginia 24/7. Pick the closest city for local response times, neighborhoods and project photos.
Working a claim? Read our insurance & adjuster guide and the IICRC S500/S520/S700 mitigation standards we document every job against.
See the full service-area mapFree Virginia Beach estimate
Send photos of the soot and tell us where the smoke came from — we'll call you back with next steps. For an active emergency, call (757) 403-9958 instead so we can dispatch now.
Insurance & claims
We handle the claim like we handle the job — in plain English
Most people have never filed a fire, water or mold claim before in Virginia Beach. Here is exactly how it runs, what you do, and what we do. No insurance-speak, no surprises at the end.
Preview opens the PDF right here — from there you can open it in a new tab to print or save it to Files.
We are a licensed Virginia restoration contractor (VA 2705138091), not a public adjuster. We document your loss and write the repair scope — your carrier decides coverage under your policy.
365 Restoration · 1720 Lambert Court, Unit I, Chesapeake, Virginia 23320 · Serving Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads since 1995.