Serving Alamance & Guilford County, NC Call or text (336) 380-9459

Water & Fire Damage Repair in Burlington, NC

Ruined drywall, subfloor and framing cut back to something solid and rebuilt. Alamance and Guilford County. We put the room back, not a patch over the problem.

Quick answer

Water and fire damage repair in Burlington NC means cutting back to material that is actually sound and rebuilding from there. Covering damage instead of removing it is what turns a repair into a bigger repair.

Water and fire damage repair in Burlington, NC. We cut damaged drywall, subfloor and framing back to something solid and rebuild the room, across Alamance and Guilford County.

Where we fit, and where we do not

Being straight about this matters. There are two stages after water or fire, and they are different trades.

The first is mitigation: stopping the water, extracting it, drying the structure, dealing with smoke and, where there is mould or a significant fire, the remediation specialists and whatever your insurer requires. That is urgent work on a clock and it is not what we do.

The second is reconstruction: putting the house back. That is our half. Once the structure is dry and clear, somebody has to rebuild the walls, the floor, the framing, the trim and the finish, and that somebody is us.

If you call us while water is still coming in, we will tell you honestly that mitigation comes first and that we will pick it up afterwards.

Cut back to sound material

The temptation with damage is to remove as little as possible. It is understandable and it is the wrong instinct.

Water travels along framing and wicks up drywall well beyond the visible stain. Smoke gets into porous material a long way from the burn. Leave a marginal piece in place, close the wall, and the problem carries on behind the finish where nobody can see it. So the line gets drawn past the damage, into material that is genuinely sound, and the rebuild starts from there.

It costs a bit more on the day and it is the difference between fixing this once and fixing it twice.

Subfloor and framing

Water damage that has been there a while has usually reached the floor. Soft subfloor is easy to find once the finish is up, and it gets replaced rather than overlaid. Joists that have taken sustained water get assessed properly. Sistering a joist is a real repair. Laying new floor over a spongy one is not.

If the floor has moved as well as rotted, the level has to be corrected as part of the rebuild or the new floor will telegraph every dip. See house leveling and floor repair.

Putting the room back

Once the structure is right, it is a rebuild: new board hung, taped, floated and finished, ceilings brought back flat, trim run, everything primed and painted so the repaired area is not a slightly different colour to the rest of the room for the next decade.

Getting a repaired room to disappear is mostly about the finish. See drywall repair and trim for how that half gets done.

Finding out why it happened

A rebuild over an unfixed cause is money set on fire. If the water came from outside, it is usually the envelope: failed flashing, a window that was never sealed properly, siding that has been wicking at grade. That is fixable and it is our work too. See siding and window replacement.

If it came from inside and needs a licensed plumbing contractor, we will say so.

Insurance work

Plenty of this work runs through a claim. We will document what we find with photos, scope the reconstruction clearly so it can be read against an adjuster's estimate, and give you an itemised price. We are not going to tell you what your policy covers, because we are not your adjuster. We will make sure what we are proposing is written plainly enough for you to have that conversation.

Call (336) 380-9459 once the place is dry, or see everything we do.

Questions we get asked

Do you do the water extraction and drying?

No. Stopping the water, extracting it, drying the structure and any mould or smoke remediation is mitigation work, and it is a different trade on a different clock. We do the reconstruction afterwards. Call a mitigation company first and us second.

How much damaged material has to come out?

More than the part you can see. Water wicks up drywall and travels along framing well past the visible stain, and smoke gets into porous material a long way from the burn. We cut back into genuinely sound material, because leaving a marginal piece in and closing the wall means doing the job twice.

Can you match the repair to the rest of the room?

That is the goal, and it is mostly about finish rather than materials. New board gets floated wide, sanded flat and primed, and we prime and paint the repaired area so it does not read as a slightly different colour under a lamp.

Do you work with insurance claims?

We document what we find with photos and give you a clearly itemised reconstruction scope that can be read against an adjuster's estimate. We will not tell you what your policy covers, because that is not our call, but we will make our part easy to read.

What if the leak is still happening?

Then that gets fixed first, or the rebuild is wasted money. If it came from outside it is usually flashing, a badly sealed window or siding wicking at grade, and that is work we do. If it needs a licensed plumber, we will tell you.

Related work we take on

Need the room put back?

Once the place is dry, call and we will scope the rebuild and give you an itemised price.

(336) 380-9459
Call or text (336) 380-9459