NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
The visible damage — charred walls, blackened ceilings — is only part of the story. Smoke travels through wall cavities, gets pulled into HVAC ductwork, and settles into insulation long before you can smell it in the next room. When restoration stops at what’s visible, the hidden damage keeps working. Weeks later, you’re dealing with persistent odor, air quality problems, or worse — mold from the water used to put the fire out.
South Hempstead’s housing stock makes this more complicated than it sounds. The majority of homes here were built between the 1940s and 1960s, which means there’s a real chance that a fire disturbed asbestos-containing floor tiles, pipe insulation, or ceiling materials — and possibly lead paint. That’s not a cleanup job anymore. That’s a hazardous materials situation that requires specific state and federal licenses to address legally. Not every restoration company has them.
When the work is done correctly, you get your home back — not just cleaned up, but structurally sound, air-tested, and documented for your insurance carrier. Your family isn’t breathing combustion byproducts weeks after we leave. And you’re not getting a call six months later about mold growing inside a wall that was never properly dried.
Green Island Group is a locally owned restoration company based on Long Island, serving South Hempstead and Nassau County homeowners with a full stack of credentials that most restoration companies simply don’t carry. NYS DOL Asbestos License. NYS DOL Mold License. USEPA Lead/RRP Certification. IICRC Certification for Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration. Nassau County General Contractor License. That combination matters because fire damage in a pre-1980 home doesn’t stay in one lane — it crosses into hazardous materials territory fast.
With over 5,000 completed restoration projects across New York State, our team has worked through the specific scenarios that come up in mid-century Nassau County homes: oil burner puff-backs, electrical fires in aging wiring, kitchen fires in post-war Capes. We know what’s behind the walls of a 1950s Long Island house, and we know how Nassau County’s permitting and inspection process works. South Hempstead homeowners aren’t our first call — they’re part of our regular service area.
It starts the moment you call. We respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and aim to be on-site in South Hempstead within an hour. In this area, that response time matters — the homes here are close together, and fire and smoke can move through shared walls and attic spaces faster than most people expect. The first priority is stopping active damage: boarding up openings, extracting standing water from firefighting suppression, and setting up containment to keep soot and smoke from spreading further.
From there, we do a full assessment — not just of what’s burned, but of what the fire disturbed. In a home built before 1980, that assessment includes checking for asbestos-containing materials and lead paint before any demolition begins. This is a step that unlicensed contractors skip, and it’s the step that creates legal liability for homeowners if it’s ignored. We handle any necessary abatement in-house, with the state-issued licenses required to do it legally in Nassau County.
Once the hazardous materials piece is resolved, the restoration work moves forward: structural drying, soot and odor removal, HVAC cleaning, and full reconstruction back to pre-loss condition. We document every phase in insurance-standard format and work directly with your carrier — so you’re not stuck translating between your contractor and your adjuster. One company carries the job from the emergency call to the day you move back in.
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Fire damage restoration in South Hempstead isn’t a one-size job. The age of the housing stock here — most of it built before federal asbestos and lead paint regulations — means every job has the potential to involve hazardous materials remediation alongside the standard fire and smoke cleanup. We’re equipped to handle that full scope without subcontracting any piece of it out.
On the fire and smoke side, that means IICRC-certified soot removal across all surface types, thermal fogging and ozone treatment for odor elimination, industrial air scrubbers for indoor air quality, and NADCA-certified HVAC duct cleaning to clear combustion residue from your heating and cooling system. Oil-heated homes — common in South Hempstead — are also prone to puff-back events, where a burner misfire pushes oily soot back through the system and into the living space. That type of soot is smearing and penetrating, and it requires a different approach than dry fire soot. We handle both.
On the structural side, our Nassau County General Contractor License means we can legally perform the reconstruction work — framing, drywall, flooring, finishes — that returns your home to livable condition. No second contractor to find, no gap between the remediation crew and the rebuild crew. And throughout every phase, the work is documented and billed directly to your insurance carrier, with our team available to help you navigate the claims process from start to finish.
It depends on when your home was built, but in South Hempstead, the odds are significant. Most of the housing stock here dates to the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s — well before the federal government banned asbestos in most building materials in the 1980s and prohibited lead-based paint in 1978. That means floor tiles, pipe insulation, joint compound, ceiling tiles, and exterior paint in these homes may contain hazardous materials.
When a fire burns through those materials — or when demolition disturbs them during cleanup — you’re no longer dealing with a standard restoration job. You’re in hazardous materials territory, and the contractor handling the work needs NYS DOL Asbestos licensure and USEPA Lead/RRP certification to proceed legally. We carry both. If you hire a contractor who doesn’t, you could face stop-work orders, failed inspections, and personal liability under Nassau County’s environmental health regulations.
As soon as possible — ideally within the first few hours. The reason is chemistry. Soot left on surfaces begins a process called “dry smoke bonding” within hours of a fire, where acidic particles permanently etch into paint, drywall, metal fixtures, and fabric. The longer it sits, the more damage it does and the more expensive it becomes to reverse. Some surfaces that could have been cleaned become surfaces that need to be replaced entirely.
There’s also the water factor. The suppression water from firefighting soaks into wall cavities, subfloors, and insulation — and on Long Island, where summer humidity is already elevated, mold can begin growing within 24 to 48 hours. A fast response doesn’t just limit soot damage. It’s often the difference between a contained restoration job and a full mold remediation project running alongside it. We’re available 24 hours a day and aim to be on-site in South Hempstead within one hour of your call.
A puff-back happens when an oil burner misfires and forces combustion gases and soot backward through the heating system into your home. There’s no open flame — but the result is a house coated in fine, oily, black residue that spreads through every room connected to the ductwork. It’s one of the most common fire-related service calls in Nassau County, specifically because so many homes here — including in South Hempstead — were built with oil heat and still use it today.
The soot from a puff-back is different from ordinary fire soot. It’s oily and smearing, which means wiping it spreads it further. It requires specific cleaning agents and techniques, and the HVAC system itself needs to be professionally cleaned to prevent re-contamination every time the heat runs. As for insurance: most standard homeowners policies in New York do cover puff-back damage, but the claim documentation needs to be thorough. We handle puff-back cleanup and document the full scope for your carrier.
The range is wide because the scope varies so much from job to job. A contained kitchen fire with limited smoke spread might run $12,000 to $18,000. A fire that involved structural damage, hazardous materials abatement, and full reconstruction in an older South Hempstead home can push $40,000 or more when all phases are included. The variables that move the number most are: how far smoke traveled through the home, whether asbestos or lead paint was disturbed, how much water damage occurred from suppression, and whether mold remediation is needed.
The good news is that for most South Hempstead homeowners, a significant portion of this is covered by homeowners insurance. The key is documentation — insurance carriers want itemized, phase-by-phase records of what was damaged, what was done, and what it cost. We document every step in the format insurers expect and bill your carrier directly, which removes a lot of the financial uncertainty from the process. Your out-of-pocket exposure typically comes down to your deductible and any gaps in coverage your policy may have.
In most cases, no — and it’s not just about comfort. After a fire, the air inside a home contains microscopic soot particles, carbon monoxide residue, and volatile organic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde that are released when common household materials burn. These aren’t visible, and they don’t smell like smoke by the time they’ve dispersed through the home. For adults, short-term exposure is unpleasant. For children, it’s a real health risk — and with over 40% of South Hempstead households having kids under 18, this is a question worth taking seriously.
During active demolition and abatement phases — especially in a pre-1980 home where asbestos or lead paint may be disturbed — occupancy isn’t legally permitted. Once the remediation phase is complete and air quality testing confirms the space is safe, re-occupancy can be discussed. Your homeowners insurance policy likely includes Additional Living Expenses (ALE) coverage that pays for temporary housing while the work is underway. We can help you understand what your policy covers so you’re not paying out of pocket for a hotel while the job is in progress.
We work directly with your insurance carrier — that means billing them directly, providing documentation in the format adjusters use, and staying in communication throughout the claims process so you’re not caught in the middle. For South Hempstead homeowners dealing with high-value properties, this matters. A home worth over $800,000 carries a significant insurance policy, and the difference between a well-documented claim and a poorly documented one can be tens of thousands of dollars in settlement value.
We document every phase of the job: pre-work conditions, scope of damage, materials removed, work performed, and post-remediation results. If an adjuster questions a line item or tries to reduce the scope of coverage, there’s a paper trail to support the full claim. Customers have specifically noted that we stayed involved through material selection and helped them understand their coverage options — not just handed them a bill and moved on. That level of involvement is especially useful when you’re displaced, stressed, and not sure what your policy actually covers.
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