Contents Restoration & Pack-Out in Berkeley, CA

• Reconstruction will take more than a few days

  Belongings in an active work zone get damaged, dusty, and in the way. Moving them out speeds the repair and protects them.

• Category 2 or 3 water reached your things

  Contaminated items need decontamination in a controlled environment, not a wipe-down in the room they were in.

• Smoke odor is in textiles and soft goods

  Clothing, upholstery, and drapery need textile processing and deodorization chambers. That does not happen on-site.

• Documents, books, or photographs got wet

  The most time-critical category by a wide margin. Freeze stabilization has to happen within about 48 hours.

• Electronics were exposed

  Corrosion continues after the device dries. Professional cleaning within days is what determines whether it survives.

• You need the space cleared to dry it properly

  A room full of furniture cannot be dried effectively. Air has to reach the floor and the walls.

1. 1

   Room-by-room inventory and photography

   Every item is logged, photographed, and barcoded before it moves. You get a copy. Your adjuster gets a copy.

2. 2

   Salvageability triage

   Restorable, questionable, or non-salvageable. Non-salvageable items are documented in detail for your claim rather than quietly discarded.

3. 3

   Careful packing and transport

   Wet items are packed differently from dry ones. Documents and photographs are stabilized on-site before they move.

4. 4

   Specialized cleaning by material

   Ultrasonic cleaning for hard goods and collectibles, textile processing for clothing and linens, upholstery cleaning, wood furniture restoration and refinishing, and electronics decontamination.

5. 5

   Deodorization

   Ozone or hydroxyl chambers for anything holding smoke or musty odor, run as a separate stage after cleaning.

6. 6

   Climate-controlled storage

   Restored items are stored in a secure, conditioned facility while your property is repaired.

7. 7

   Pack-back and placement

   Everything comes back and goes where it belongs, checked against the same inventory it left on.

Document and Photograph Recovery

What Can and Cannot Be Saved

• Usually restorable

  Solid wood furniture, hard goods, ceramics, glass and metal, jewelry, clothing and linens, most electronics if we get them quickly, and frozen-then-freeze-dried documents.

• Sometimes restorable

  Upholstered furniture and mattresses in clean water only; leather; area rugs; books; framed art. Depends entirely on water category and elapsed time.

• Rarely restorable

  Anything porous that contacted Category 3 water, particleboard furniture, mattresses in gray or black water, and most cosmetics and opened food.

• The economic test

  Restoration cost against replacement cost, weighted for sentimental and irreplaceable value. A $200 bookcase is not worth $400 of restoration. A photo album is worth almost anything.

Why Berkeley Trusts Us With Their Belongings

• Photographed and inventoried before anything moves

  Item-level records with condition noted at pack-out. You get the list, and so does your adjuster — which is also how contents claims get paid without argument.

• Documents and photographs are not written off

  Wet paper and photographs are recoverable far more often than people assume, provided they are stabilised quickly rather than left to dry in a stack.

• One crew handles structure and contents

  No coordinating a separate contents vendor against a drying schedule, and no gap where nobody will say who has your things.

• We tell you when it is not worth it

  Some items fail the economic test and some — anything porous that sat in Category 3 water — cannot be made safe at any price. You get that straight rather than an inflated restoration line.

• Volume of contents

  Typically measured in cubic feet or by room count. Packing and inventory labor scales directly with it.

• Which processes are required

  Ultrasonic, textile processing, electronics decontamination, and freeze-drying each carry their own rate.

• Contamination level

  Category 3 contents need decontamination protocols and more of the volume ends up non-salvageable.

• Storage duration

  Climate-controlled storage is billed monthly and tracks your reconstruction schedule.

• Specialty and high-value items

  Fine art, antiques, musical instruments, and archival material may need outside specialists, which we coordinate.