Why Do Restoration Workers Board Up a Building After a Fire?

2/2/2022 (Permalink)

You may have walked by a burned-out building after a commercial fire in San Diego, CA, and wondered why all the windows were boarded up. It isn’t very aesthetically pleasing, but does it actually serve a purpose?

As it turns out, boarding up a recently burned property is a very important part of the fire damage restoration process. To understand the value of the board-up service, it’s helpful to get a clearer understanding of the fire restoration process as a whole. Here is a brief rundown of the fire damage restoration process as it relates to board up service:

Thorough Inspection

Before the boards and tarps go up, fire restoration professionals scan the affected area with state-of-the-art equipment that gives them accurate readings as to the levels of soot, smoke, and fire damage in the premises. This provides them with a solid grasp on which items and belongings are salvageable and which are too far gone. Many of the items, because they are salvageable, still have inherent value, and it’s important to protect them.

Boarding Up for Safety

Once the affected area has been assessed for the severity of damage and salvageability of items, restoration professionals will board up any destroyed windows and place tarps over destroyed ceilings. This serves multiple purposes.

Perhaps most important, this helps protect damaged items from further elemental damage, particularly from precipitation. Statistically speaking, looting is also a serious problem with burned-out commercial buildings as well. Looters may not have the equipment to tell them whether an item is salvageable or not, but it usually won’t stop them from stealing.

This also creates a secure environment for fire restoration professionals to work in, as the fire cleanup process is very involved and often difficult work. Once the area has been boarded for security and safety purposes, professionals will get to work on restoring items and structural areas to their pre-fire condition.