Contents Restoration for Homes and Businesses
Contents Pack-Out, Cleaning, and Storage in Chicago
When fire, smoke, or water damages a home or business in Chicagoland, Restore Construction packs out your belongings, moving them out of harm’s way before the repairs begin. Our contents team inventories your furniture, clothing, documents, and other belongings, cleans what the damage reached, and keeps them secure until the work is done. Then we bring them back.
- Complete Inventory
- Cleaning and Deodorizing
- Climate-Controlled Storage
- Delivery Back to Your Property
Restore Construction’s Credentials
Trusted Contents Restoration Professionals
Restore Construction is an IICRC-certified firm with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, so you can check our record before you hand over your belongings.
IICRC Certified Firm
BBB A+ Rating
RIA Member
Best Fire Damage Restoration in Chicago
IREM Chicago Chapter
Contents Restoration
How Our Pack-Out Service Protects Your Belongings
A moving company and a storage unit can get your things out of the way, but they won’t clean the soot or water damage off them. Our contents team packs and moves your belongings for you, cleans the ones the damage reached, and stores them while the repairs go on, so you aren’t hauling boxes yourself.
We clean your belongings at our 50,000-square-foot facility in Melrose Park, where we handle fabrics, furniture, cabinetry, books, and documents. Our technicians hold IICRC odor control certification, and they treat the smoke smell that works its way into clothing and upholstery, not just the soot you can see.
How It Works
What to Expect From Our Contents Pack-Out and Cleaning
Your belongings go through four stages, from the day we pack them to the day they return to your property.
You choose what stays with you
Before we pack, you set aside what you’ll need day to day, like medications and clothes, and our contents team packs the rest.
A written inventory as we pack
Our contents team lists your belongings room by room as we pack them, so there’s a complete record of what we take with us.
Your belongings stay secure at our facility
We clean and deodorize the items we can restore and keep them with us until your property is ready.
Your belongings come back cleaned
Once the repairs are done, we deliver your belongings on a day that works for you, so they return to finished rooms, not a work site.
Common Causes
What Are the Most Common Reasons for a Contents Pack-Out?
Most pack-outs start with fire or water damage, but large repairs can empty rooms the damage never reached, too. Each situation changes what we pack and how we clean it.
House and Business Fires
Fire leaves some belongings beyond saving and coats the rest in soot and smoke odor, so we sort what burned from what we can clean.
Water From Firefighting
The water used to put out a fire soaks furniture, rugs, and boxes in nearby rooms, and they need to come out before they warp or grow mold.
Burst Pipes and Sprinkler Lines
A burst pipe or sprinkler line can soak the clothes in your closets, warp wood furniture, and ruin paper files on the floor below it.
Basement Flooding
A flooded basement soaks the boxes, furniture, and keepsakes sitting on the floor, including the ones that have been packed away for years.
Roof Leaks and Ice Dams
Water from a damaged roof or an ice dam drips onto beds, dressers, and closets, often before anyone notices the stain on the ceiling.
Major Repairs
Large repairs need empty rooms, so we move belongings out even where the damage never reached and bring them back afterward.
Family Operated Since 1983
Our Story
Patrick L. Santoro founded the company in 1983, and his sons, Patrick M. and Michael, now lead it alongside him.
Our contents restoration division packs out, cleans, and stores belongings for families and businesses across Chicagoland, and it works on the same schedule as your repairs.
We’re a family-operated company based in Melrose Park, and joining American Restoration gave us a wider network.
Damaged Belongings? We’ll Clean and Store Them
Call us as soon as you know repairs are coming, and our contents team will plan the pack-out around your schedule and the work ahead.
Services
Restoration Services Alongside a Pack-Out
A pack-out usually happens because a bigger job is underway, like fire or water damage, a rebuild, or a claim. We handle that work too, so one team schedules both your repairs and the return of your belongings.
Our specialty
Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration
Our certified technicians deodorize the structure while we manage the rebuild, so there’s far less smell left for your cleaned belongings to pick back up.
Emergency Board-Up and Securing
We close up broken windows and doors, so your furniture and keepsakes have cover from rain and break-ins until the pack-out.
Board-Up and Securing →Water Damage Restoration
Our crews dry your walls and floors back to normal moisture levels before your belongings return, so they don’t go back into a damp room.
Water Damage Restoration →Reconstruction and Repairs
We manage the repairs while the rooms sit empty, so the work moves along faster and you’re back in your home or business sooner.
Reconstruction →Insurance Claim Management
Our estimators list the items we couldn’t restore and help find their model numbers, so your claim describes each one accurately.
Insurance Claims →Storm Damage Restoration
We cover the storm damage to your roof and windows and manage the repairs, so your belongings wait in storage until the building is weathertight again.
Storm Damage Restoration →Biohazard and Trauma Cleanup
We handle any biohazard or trauma cleanup before the pack-back, so your belongings return to a cleaned space.
Biohazard Cleanup →Mold Removal and Remediation
We remove the growth from the property and pack moldy items apart from the rest, so spores are far less likely to reach your clean belongings.
Mold Remediation →Reviews
Chicagoland Property Owners on Working With Restore Construction
Service Area
Contents Pack-Out and Storage for Chicagoland Homes and Businesses
Our contents team packs out homes and businesses in Chicago, Naperville, Orland Park, and the suburbs in between.
Restore Construction
2035 N 15th Ave, Melrose Park, IL 60160 · Open 24/7
Communities we serve most
- Chicago
- Melrose Park
- Oak Park
- Elmhurst
- Maywood
- Cicero
- Park Ridge
- Schaumburg
- Naperville
- Oak Lawn
- Orland Park
- Joliet
Contents Cleaning FAQs
Chicago Contents Pack-Out and Storage FAQs
Are my belongings kept separate from other customers’ items?
Yes. We keep your belongings in individual units and store them locally in a secure location with 24-hour security and surveillance cameras.
Should I throw out damaged belongings before you get there?
Hold off, except for spoiled food and sewage-soaked items, and photograph those before they go. Once something goes to the curb, it’s harder to prove what you lost, so let our contents team see the rest before you decide.
Do you restore water-damaged books and documents?
Yes. We handle book and document reprocessing as part of our contents service. Wet paper gets harder to save the longer it sits, so tell us about it when you call.
Can you pack out a business or office?
Yes. We pack out offices and businesses as well as homes, so you can plan your reopening around the repairs while your files and furnishings sit in storage.
How do you keep stored furniture from warping?
Our storage facility is climate-controlled, so your furniture, clothing, and papers are less exposed to the heat, cold, and humidity that cause warping and mildew.
How do you decide what to clean and what to replace?
We weigh the cost. Our contents team tests your belongings on site and checks whether each item is cheaper to clean or to replace.
Can you save belongings from a sewage backup?
Often the hard items, yes. Mattresses, upholstery, cardboard boxes, and paper that soaked up sewage are generally a loss, but wood furniture and other hard goods often clean up. We check what the water reached and tell you which items we can restore.
Not An Emergency?
Tell Us About Your Disaster
Tell us about the damage and what it reached, and a project coordinator will call to set up a time to look at your belongings.
Damage happening right now?
Call us now. Belongings left in a fire-damaged or wet building keep getting worse, and the sooner we move them, the better their chances.
We answer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Tell us about your situation.
We will call you back the same day during business hours.