Water damage drying
Fire & smoke cleanup
Mold remediation
Storm response
Sewage cleanup
ReconstructionFree visual inspection and a written scope of work before any mitigation begins - photos, moisture readings, and drying logs go in your claim file
The scope we write is the scope we bill. Anything new gets shown to you, in writing, before we touch it.
Get your free estimateFast, Reliable Fire Damage Restoration Across Santa Monica
A small kitchen fire in Santa Monica leaves more than soot on the cabinets. The fire department sprays hundreds of gallons of water into a 1930s lath-and-plaster home, that water wicks into original wood framing, and the cool marine layer keeps everything damp for weeks. Soot removal alone misses half the problem. Our Fire Damage Restoration team handles both the visible smoke damage and the hidden water damage that follows every firefight in Santa Monica’s older coastal housing stock. Call (213) 423-6383 any hour, day or night. A live person answers and a crew can be at your door with a written scope and a named arrival window.
Why Dryden Restoration Los Angeles Is Santa Monica’s Preferred Fire Damage Restoration Company
We’re an independently owned and operated Kingswell company, led by Carl Brandt, and we’ve been restoring homes since 2005. Santa Monica homeowners keep calling us back because we do something the restoration trade often forgets: we write the price down before a tool touches the wall. No door-knock surprise. No “the adjuster found more.” The number you approve is the number you pay, and every repair carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If a covered repair fails within a year, we return and correct it at no charge.
Our technicians arrive in Dryden uniforms, background-checked and trained to IICRC, RIA, and IFA standards. They know what a 1920s Ocean Park bungalow’s original framing looks like after a fire, and they know that salt-air corrosion in old galvanized plumbing changes where water travels. We work across Santa Monica, from Sunset Park to the Wilshire corridor, and our dispatch comes from the brand’s Los Angeles office. Response to Santa Monica addresses typically lands within 60 to 90 minutes for emergency board-up and mitigation.
Restoration work we handle
Soot Removal in Santa Monica
Soot Removal in Santa Monica is rarely a simple wipe-down. Fires in older homes burn a mix of plaster dust, decades of paint layers, and often original wood lath, producing acidic soot that etches chrome, brass, and glass if it sits. We start with HEPA vacuuming to lift loose particulate, then dry-sponge surfaces before any wet cleaning, because introducing water to soot too early turns it into a smear that permanently stains porous plaster. In fog-heavy coastal blocks near Main Street and Montana Avenue, soot also mixes with ambient moisture, which accelerates corrosion on metal fixtures.
Why Soot Settles Differently in Coastal Homes
The marine layer that rolls over Santa Monica most mornings pushes fine soot particles deeper into crevices than the same fire would in Van Nuys or West Hollywood. We use air scrubbers with HEPA filtration to capture that suspended particulate.
What Soot Removal Costs
A typical soot removal job in Santa Monica runs $900 to $2,400, depending on square footage and whether we’re cleaning painted plaster walls, original hardwood floors, or delicate built-ins common in 1930s bungalows. That price includes HEPA vacuuming, dry-sponge and chemical-sponge work, and air scrubbing during the job.
Fire Damage Restoration Company in Santa Monica
When a fire hits a Santa Monica home, a full-service Fire Damage Restoration Company needs to do more than board up windows and spray deodorizer. Our work follows a sequence: board-up and security, water extraction from the firefight, structural drying with containment, demolition of unsalvageable materials, structural repair, and full smoke and odor remediation. In Santa Monica’s pre-1950 homes, structural repair often means matching original lath-and-plaster, rebuilding raised foundations, and replacing salt-corroded supply lines that the firefight water followed into crawl spaces.
Emergency Board-Up and Security
We board up fire-damaged openings with plywood and secure the perimeter the same day. A home left open near the beach invites theft, but the bigger risk in Santa Monica is the fog. Exposed interiors absorb ambient coastal moisture overnight, which complicates drying and feeds mold.
Structural Drying After the Firefight
Firefighters put water where you’d never choose to pour it. We run Dri-Eaz dehumidifiers, Phoenix air movers, and Injectidry drying mats in containment, with moisture mapping that shows us exactly where water traveled. A typical structural drying phase in a Santa Monica raised-foundation bungalow runs $1,800 to $3,600.
Trusted Brands We Service in Santa Monica
The equipment we run on Santa Monica jobs is the same professional-grade fleet used by large commercial restoration crews: Dri-Eaz dehumidifiers, Phoenix air movers, and XPOWER air scrubbers. These are not rental-counter machines. On fire jobs in Ocean Park and Sunset Park, we pair Injectidry drying mats with moisture mapping to pull water from original subfloors that have been absorbing salt air for 80 years. Because we stock parts and consumables for these brands locally, replacement filters, filters for HEPA units, and drying panels arrive on your street quickly, not shipped from a warehouse three states away.
See the difference
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After
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After
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AfterCommon Fire Damage Restoration Problems We See in Santa Monica Homes
- Hidden water from the firefight in raised foundations. Firefighters run water for 20 to 40 minutes, and in a 1930s bungalow with a crawl space, that water follows corroded galvanized supply lines and pools where no one looks until subfloor rot sets in.
- Lath-and-plaster walls that hold smoke and moisture differently than drywall. Original plaster acts like a sponge. Soot penetrates deep, and firefight water wicks upward through the lath, which means surface cleaning alone leaves odor behind.
- Salt-air corrosion on metal fixtures and fasteners. Hinges, plumbing, electrical boxes, and original steel casement windows near the coast corrode faster after a fire because soot is acidic and the marine layer supplies continuous moisture.
- Recurring pinhole leaks in original galvanized plumbing. The same salt air that rusts hinges eats through old galvanized supply lines in crawl spaces, causing small leaks that quietly rot subfloors years before any fire starts. After a fire, those leak paths are where firefight water goes first.
Pricing for Fire Damage Restoration in Santa Monica, CA
Real numbers for Santa Monica jobs: emergency board-up starts around $450 and goes to $1,200 depending on openings. Soot and smoke cleaning runs $900 to $2,400. Full structural drying with containment runs $1,800 to $3,600. A complete fire damage restoration on a small bungalow, including drywall or plaster repair, subfloor work, painting, and odor sealing, typically lands between $8,000 and $25,000. Larger homes and rebuilds exceed that. The price you approve in writing before work begins is the price you pay, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise covers every repaired surface. Call (213) 423-6383 for a free estimate with a written scope.
We Also Serve Cities Near Santa Monica
We regularly run fire damage restoration jobs in Venice, Playa del Rey, West Hollywood, and Van Nuys. If your home is in one of those cities, you get the same written pricing, the same 365-Day Done Right Promise, and the same live-answer phone line. For a full look at what we do across the area, see our Fire Damage Restoration page or our Santa Monica city page.
Serving Santa Monica, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Santa Monica 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 About Fire Damage Restoration in Santa Monica
The marine layer keeps ambient relative humidity above 60 percent most mornings, which slows structural drying and lets soot bond to porous plaster and wood more aggressively than in inland cities. We compensate by running contained drying with Dri-Eaz dehumidifiers, using air scrubbers to control suspended soot, and checking moisture readings with meters, not timers. Call (213) 423-6383 if your bungalow took smoke or firefight water.
Ocean Park’s bungalows sit on raised foundations with original galvanized plumbing that salt air has been corroding since the 1920s. When the fire department runs water into a kitchen or wall, that water follows the same leak paths those corroded pipes have already created, pooling in crawl spaces and rotting subfloors behind the baseboards. Our moisture mapping catches what a quick visual inspection misses.
Usually yes, but not everything. We photograph, inventory, and pack out affected contents using a written contents list, because soot and odor remediation works better when rooms are empty and because your belongings are safer off-site while we run air scrubbers and rebuild plaster. Unaffected rooms can often stay in place behind containment. Call (213) 423-6383 and we’ll tell you straight what needs to move.
Yes. We repair lath-and-plaster rather than defaulting to drywall, because ripping out original plaster in a 1930s Sunset Park home changes the character and the soundproofing. We remove damaged plaster keys, patch with compatible materials, and skim coat to match the original texture. If the lath is too far gone, we rebuild with period-appropriate methods. Every repaired wall carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise.
A scope of work is a written list of every repair we’ll make, every material we’ll use, and every area we’ll clean, priced line by line. With pre-1950 homes, the scope matters because hidden conditions, like dry rot from salt-air corrosion or water-damaged lath, often surface only after walls open. You should sign off on a scope before any demolition starts. We write ours before a tool touches your wall, and the price on that scope does not change at the door.
If your Santa Monica home has fire damage, smoke damage, or hidden water from a firefight, call (213) 423-6383. Carl Brandt and our team will answer, schedule a crew, and put the price and the plan in writing before we start.
Written by Carl Brandt, Owner at Dryden Restoration Los Angeles, serving Santa Monica since 2005.