Orland Park water and fire restoration. Family run, 24/7, since 2004.
Burst pipe, sewage in the basement, smoke through the whole house, or mold behind the drywall? Tomasz Kowalski's crews have been drying out south-suburban houses from one shop on 159th Street for twenty-two years. Usually on your street within 60 minutes between I-294 and I-80; farther out we tell you the real time when you call.
24 hours, 7 days. Tomasz or the on-call lead picks up, never a call centre.
IICRC Certified Firm #000000 (demo number). WRT and FSRT certified technicians on every water and fire job.
Illinois Roofing Contractor License 104.000000 (demo number) for emergency tarping. Insured; the certificate is emailed before the first truck leaves the yard.
The short version: what happens when you call.
- You call (708) 555-0142, day or night. Tomasz or the on-call lead picks up, asks where the water is coming from, whether the power is safe, and your address. If the water is still running, we walk you to the shutoff while the truck loads.
- A crew is usually on your street within 60 minutes anywhere between I-294 and I-80, Oak Lawn down to Frankfort. Farther out, we tell you the real time when you call, not a number we cannot keep.
- Mitigation first, meaning we stop the damage from spreading: shut the source, extract the standing water, pull the soaked carpet pad and the wet bottom of the drywall, and set air movers and a dehumidifier before the crew leaves. Moisture readings go on a map of the room so the drying has a target.
- Daily readings until the structure meets the IICRC S500 drying goal, then a written, itemized scope for the rebuild. The same crew comes back to hang the drywall and put the trim on.
Damage never stays in one room.
A burst supply line in a second-floor bathroom in Homer Glen is a water job, a ceiling job, a contents job and a rebuild job by the time it stops. We do all of it from one shop so nobody hands you off halfway.
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Water damage
Extraction, flood cuts, air movers and dehumidifiers, moisture mapping, daily readings until dry. Burst pipes, washing machine and ice maker lines, sump pump failures, ice dams in February. Mitigation stops the spread now; drying to the S500 standard keeps mold from following.
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Fire and smoke
Soot and smoke residue cleaning on walls, ceilings, ductwork and contents after the fire department has released the house. Odour removal with hydroxyl generators while you are living there, ozone when the house is empty. Structural cleaning to IICRC S700 before any rebuild starts.
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Mold
Containment, negative air with HEPA filtration, removal of the affected material rather than painting over it, then a dry-out so it does not come back. Remediation to IICRC S520 by AMRT certified technicians. We will also tell you when a patch is small enough to clean yourself.
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Storm damage
Same-day board-up of broken windows and tarping of an opened roof, then the water work inside. Tarping is roofing work under Illinois law, which is why our roofing licence is printed on this page.
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Sewage backup
Category 3 water. Everything porous it touched comes out, the slab and framing are cleaned and disinfected, and the air is scrubbed before anyone moves back downstairs. Common after a heavy rain pushes up a basement floor drain in Oak Lawn or Palos Heights.
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Contents
Pack-out with a photographed inventory, cleaning, and storage in our Orland Park warehouse until the house is ready. Soaked drywall goes to the dumpster. Your photographs, documents and furniture do not, unless you tell us so.
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Rebuild
Restoration means the house goes back to how it was before the loss. Drywall, paint, trim, flooring and cabinets put back by the same crew that pulled them, from one itemized scope, with one project lead from the first night to the walkthrough.
Jobs like the ones we get called to.
Demo note: these are open-licensed job-site photos standing in for a client's own job photos.
Why Orland Park calls a shop on 159th Street instead of a franchise.
Everyone prints a badge. We print the standard numbers, the certificate numbers and the licence number, so you can check them.
- Standards cited by number, not by badge
- Water drying follows IICRC S500, mold remediation S520, fire and smoke S700, and trauma or biohazard cleanup S540. If a technician says a wall is dry, there is a meter reading behind it.
- IICRC Certified Firm #000000 (demo number)
- WRT and FSRT certified technicians on every water and fire job. AMRT certified technicians on mold. Certificates are on the truck if you want to see them.
- Illinois Roofing Contractor License 104.000000 (demo number)
- Printed because emergency tarping is roofing work in Illinois. General liability and workers' comp on every job; the certificate is emailed before the first truck leaves the yard.
- Written, itemized pricing
- Every scope is written in Xactimate line items, so you can read exactly what was done and compare it to anyone else's. Estimates are free, and the phone quote and the paper say the same number.
- One shop, one crew
- The people who answer the phone, dry the house and rebuild it all work out of Orland Park. Three crews, our own drying equipment, nothing rented when the whole street floods at once.
Tomasz has taken Orland Park's 2am calls since 2004.
Tomasz Kowalski started the company in 2004 with one truck-mounted extractor and a borrowed dehumidifier, drying out basements in Orland Park and Tinley Park after the summer storms. The shop on 159th Street now runs three crews and keeps its own drying equipment. Tomasz still takes the overnight phone himself three nights a week, and he walks every fire job before the estimate is written.
Not a franchise. No call centre, no territory map, no corporate scope sheet. The name on the truck is the name that answers the phone.
I would rather tell you a true ninety minutes than a false sixty. Dispatch runs on the truth, and so does drying.
Tomasz Kowalski, owner, Kowalski RestorationWhat south-suburban homeowners said after the equipment left.
5 stars on Google
The sump pump quit during the April storms and we had four inches in the basement at midnight. Tomasz answered the phone himself, the crew was here in about fifty minutes, and the moisture map they left on the fridge told us exactly which walls were still drying and when they would be back.
Agnieszka R., Orland ParkSump pump failure, finished basement. April 2026, on Google
5 stars on Google
Dryer fire in the laundry room and smoke through the whole second floor. They cleaned soot off things I had already written off, ran the hydroxyl machines for four days, and the house did not smell like a campfire two weeks later. Same two guys from start to finish.
Marcus D., Tinley ParkDryer fire, smoke and soot cleaning. August 2026, on Google
5 stars on Google
A home inspector found mold under the window in our son's room. They sealed off the room, took the drywall out instead of spraying it, and showed us the dry readings before they put the wall back. No scare tactics and no upsell on the rest of the house.
Colleen F., Palos HeightsMold remediation, one bedroom. June 2026, on Google
Questions people ask on the first call.
- How fast can you actually be here?
- Usually within 60 minutes anywhere between I-294 and I-80, Oak Lawn down to Frankfort, because the trucks and the equipment are on 159th Street in Orland Park. Farther out, or when a storm has every crew on the road at once, we tell you the real time when you call rather than a number we cannot keep.
- What do you give my insurer?
- We photograph and document the damage, take moisture readings and map them, write an itemized Xactimate estimate, and give your insurer the records it asks for. We can meet your adjuster on site to walk the damage and explain our scope. Coverage decisions and the claim settlement stay between you and your insurer. We are not public adjusters. Your deductible is your responsibility and cannot be waived.
- Is the estimate really free?
- Yes. The visit, the moisture readings and the written scope cost nothing. Any job over $1,000 in Illinois gets a written contract and the state's Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights pamphlet before work starts, which on a water or fire job is every job, so expect paperwork on the first visit, not after.
- Can I dry it myself?
- A clean-water spill caught the same hour on a tile floor, yes: mop it, run a fan, and watch the baseboard for a week. Water that sat overnight, reached carpet pad or drywall, or came from a drain or a sump pit, no. The material looks dry on the surface long before the framing is, and that is where mold starts. Call and we will tell you honestly which one you have.
- Does Illinois licence mold companies?
- No. Illinois does not issue a mold remediation licence, so a company calling itself state-licensed for mold is mistaken. What you can check is the IICRC certification: our mold technicians hold the AMRT (Applied Microbial Remediation Technician) card and the work follows the S520 standard.
- What does the licence number on this page mean?
- Illinois requires anyone doing roofing work for pay, including emergency tarping, to hold a state roofing contractor licence and to print the number in advertising. Our number is 104.000000, a demo number on this sample site; a real one can be checked on the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation licence lookup.
Get a free estimate.
Five fields. If water is moving right now, skip the form and call. Otherwise Tomasz or Ewa in the office calls back the same business day.
Or call, any hour.
(708) 555-0142Kowalski Restoration
West 159th Street, Orland Park, IL 60462
Cook and Will counties, from one shop. Emergency calls answered 24 hours; the office is open Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm.
- Cook County Orland Park, Tinley Park, Palos Heights, Palos Park, Oak Lawn, Oak Forest
- Will County Homer Glen, Mokena, Frankfort, New Lenox, Lockport