NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
A fire doesn’t just burn what you can see. Smoke travels through wall cavities, soot settles into every porous surface, and the water the FDNY uses to put the fire out creates a whole second layer of damage that needs to be dealt with at the same time. If any part of that gets missed, you’ll be dealing with odor, staining, or structural issues months down the road.
This matters especially in Hollis Hills, where the median home was built around 1954 and a significant portion of the neighborhood’s roughly 1,500 homes predate 1940. Older plaster-and-lath walls, original hardwood floors, and the dense wood framing common in Tudor and Colonial construction absorb smoke at a level that surface cleaning simply can’t reach. The materials that make these homes beautiful are the same ones that hold onto damage the longest.
When we finish the job right, you’re not just getting a house that looks okay. You’re getting a fully restored home one that passes inspection, holds its value, and doesn’t surprise you with hidden problems a year later. For a home worth $900,000 to well over a million dollars in Hollis Hills, that’s not a small distinction.
Green Island Group is a New York metropolitan area restoration company that works specifically in neighborhoods like Hollis Hills, where the homes are older, the architecture matters, and homeowners have high expectations. This isn’t a national franchise routing calls through a 1-800 number. We’re a local operation that understands what a 70-year-old Tudor in Surrey Estates actually needs after fire damage, and how to deliver it without cutting corners.
That means working with the NYC Department of Buildings permitting process, coordinating directly with your insurance adjuster, and handling fire, smoke, soot, and water damage under one roof so you’re not managing three different contractors during the worst week of your life. The Hollis Hills Civic Association holds this neighborhood to a high standard. We do the same.
The first thing that happens when you call is emergency stabilization. That means boarding up compromised openings, tarping any roof damage, and securing the structure before the next rain comes through. In a neighborhood where homes sit on large, wooded lots near Cunningham Park, an unsecured structure after a fire is a fast path to additional damage and additional cost.
From there, we conduct a full damage assessment and document it in detail. This isn’t a quick visual scan. It’s a thorough scope-of-loss report that captures fire char, smoke penetration, soot deposition, and water intrusion the kind of documentation your insurance adjuster needs to process a complete claim on a high-value Hollis Hills property. Because restoration work on homes here almost always involves structural elements, we pull NYC DOB permits before any rebuild work begins. That protects you legally and protects your home’s value long-term.
Then the actual restoration work begins smoke and odor treatment using thermal fogging and hydroxyl processing, soot removal from surfaces and cavities, water extraction and structural drying, and finally the rebuild. The goal at every stage is pre-loss condition. Not close to it. Not “good enough.” The real thing.
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Fire damage restoration in Hollis Hills isn’t a one-size-fits-all job. The homes here have original architectural details exposed timber framing, decorative brickwork, custom millwork, built-in cabinetry that require a careful, material-appropriate approach. Replacing those elements with generic modern materials doesn’t restore your home. It diminishes it. Our work here is about preservation as much as it is about repair.
Every restoration we handle includes emergency securing, complete damage documentation for your insurance claim, smoke and odor elimination using industrial-grade equipment, soot and residue removal from all affected surfaces, water extraction and structural drying, and full structural and cosmetic reconstruction where needed. All work is permitted through the NYC Department of Buildings, which matters both for code compliance and for your ability to sell the home without complications down the road.
Smoke odor is one of the most common things homeowners underestimate. In a home with plaster walls and original hardwood both of which are common throughout Hollis Hills smoke bonds at a molecular level. Masking it doesn’t work. Eliminating it requires the right equipment and enough time to treat the materials themselves, not just the air. That’s exactly what our process is built to do.
We’re available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for emergency response. The first priority after a fire is stabilizing the property boarding up openings, tarping roof damage, and preventing additional weather intrusion or structural compromise. In Hollis Hills, where homes are detached and often surrounded by mature trees near Cunningham Park, that initial securing step is especially important. Delay creates more damage, and more damage means a more complicated insurance claim.
Once the property is secured, we schedule a full damage assessment and begin the documentation process. The timeline from there depends on the scope of the damage, but we always move as quickly as the work allows without skipping steps that protect your home’s long-term integrity.
In most cases, yes standard homeowner’s insurance policies cover fire damage restoration, including smoke, soot, and water damage caused by firefighting. What varies is how thoroughly the claim is documented and whether the scope of loss is captured completely. For a home in Hollis Hills worth $1 million or more, the difference between a well-documented claim and a rushed one can be significant.
We work directly with insurance adjusters and provide detailed scope-of-loss documentation that reflects the full extent of the damage including hidden smoke penetration, structural compromise, and secondary water damage. The goal is to make sure your claim reflects what actually happened, so your restoration is fully covered and you’re not left paying out of pocket for work your policy should handle.
It comes down to the materials. Hollis Hills homes built in the 1940s and 1950s and especially those built before World War II typically have plaster-and-lath walls, original hardwood floors, and dense wood framing. These materials are porous in a way that modern drywall and engineered flooring simply aren’t. Smoke particles don’t just sit on the surface. They penetrate into the material itself, which is why you can clean a room thoroughly and still smell smoke weeks later.
Effective smoke and odor elimination requires industrial-grade equipment thermal foggers, ozone generators, and hydroxyl processors that treat the materials at the source, not just the air in the room. In Queens’ humid climate, where moisture helps smoke particles bond more deeply with organic materials, that level of treatment isn’t optional. It’s the only way to get a result that actually lasts.
Yes, and this is one of the most important things to get right. Any structural restoration work in New York City including work on load-bearing walls, roof structures, electrical systems, or plumbing requires permits from the NYC Department of Buildings. This applies to Hollis Hills just like every other neighborhood in the five boroughs.
Work done without proper permits can result in fines, stop-work orders, and serious complications when you eventually sell the property. It can also affect your insurance claim if unpermitted work is discovered during the process. We handle the NYC DOB permitting process as part of every restoration project, so you don’t have to navigate that system yourself during an already stressful situation. Everything is documented, permitted, and inspected which protects you now and protects your home’s value for the long term.
Absolutely, and this is one of the most common things homeowners don’t realize until it becomes a problem. Smoke travels through wall cavities, HVAC systems, and any gap in the building envelope which means rooms that were nowhere near the fire can still have significant smoke and soot damage. In a Hollis Hills home with older construction, those pathways are often more extensive because the building systems weren’t designed with the same air-sealing standards as modern construction.
Soot is also corrosive. Left on surfaces metal fixtures, electrical components, wood finishes it continues to cause damage over time. That’s why we conduct a thorough assessment that covers the entire home, not just the rooms with visible fire damage. Missing affected areas during restoration means dealing with odor, staining, or deterioration later, which is a much harder problem to solve after the fact.
The most important things to look for are local experience, full-service capability, and a clear process for working with your insurance company. A contractor who handles only fire cleanup but subcontracts the rebuild creates gaps in accountability and often delays the project significantly. You want one company that can take the job from emergency stabilization through final reconstruction and stand behind the entire result.
In Hollis Hills, where homes have architectural character worth preserving and values that make the insurance claim high-stakes, the quality of the company you choose has real financial consequences. Ask whether they pull NYC DOB permits for structural work, how they handle insurance documentation, and whether they have experience with the type of construction common in northeastern Queens Tudor, Colonial, and mid-century single-family homes built with materials that require a more careful, specialized approach than newer construction.
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