Contents Pack-Out, Inventory and Restoration in Washington, DC

Not everything can, or should, stay in a home that is an active work site. When a loss is significant, affected belongings are packed out so they can be cleaned away from the debris and moisture of the structure, which gives fragile and high-value items their best chance. A small loss may only need contents moved, blocked and protected in place while the structure is dried. The crew tells you which applies.

Pack-out comes up after fire and smoke losses and after water losses. The fire and smoke page covers the cleaning side of a fire, and the water damage page covers the drying that makes a home safe to return to.

Under pack-out, furniture, clothing, electronics, documents and keepsakes are cataloged and photographed before they are moved. That itemized, photographed contents log is also a record: it shows what was affected and what was salvageable. You receive it, and what you do with it is your decision.

Packed-out items are moved to controlled cleaning and storage and restored off-site. Household textiles, meaning clothing, bedding and upholstery, are cleaned to ANSI/IICRC S740, the standard for professional restoration of fire and smoke damaged household textiles. When the home is ready, cleaned and restored contents come back, and reconstruction returns the house to its pre-loss condition.

Not every item can be saved, and the crew does not claim otherwise. An item that cannot be cleaned to a usable condition is recorded in the inventory as such.

We do not publish the location or terms of storage, a per-item turnaround or the list of item types that can be restored. Ask when you call, and the crew will tell you what applies to your loss.

Below are Washington, DC contents and pack-out files from our CompanyCam records. Each card shows what its record holds: the city, the month, the photo count and the screened before and after pair. The cards do not carry inventories or item counts.