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6 Tips for Smoke/Soot Damage Cleanup
12/31/2019 (Permalink)
When you have fire or smoke damage in your home, it is a very overwhelming feeling. Many home or business owners feel at a loss, and just want to have the issue taken care of. One of the first things they typically do is contact their insurance agent for advice, then seek help from a restoration company, whether the loss is covered or not. This is typically when we are contacted and asked for advice. Here are our top tips for when fire damage happens:
*We do want to warn you though, when cleaning up fire or smoke, to do a thorough job on the area, you need specialized training. Calling us at 270-659-0067 for a FREE quote. This is your best bet to ensure both the soot and smell is gone from the building. *
- Remove Smoke Damage
During any size fire, there will be smoke damage to the paint, wallpaper, or walls themselves. If it has not been sitting quite a while, or is not very thick, you may be able to take it off with scrubbing, a detergent or bleach. Before you put a mixture with water on the wall, make sure to dust the area and take off as much of the dried particles as possible. This will decrease the amount of sticky residue that will be on the walls once you begin cleaning. Many people will want to paint after this has happened but be sure that the surface is as clean and dry as possible before doing that.
- Limit Activity in Area
When you limit the activity in the area, this decreases the amount of soot particles that are tracked through the house, and ground into your flooring. Until you are ready to clean, limit touching items that have dust on them. Touching will move the soot around and make it harder to get off your items.
- Get Rid of Mold and Mildew
When a fire happens and firefighters are present, they may introduce water, mold and mildew into the home or business while extinguishing the fire. When this happens, it ads even more layers of issues to deal with. With all of these issues present, it is a good idea to get a professional opinion. SERVPRO of Allen, Barren, Hart, Green and Taylor Counties have specially trained professionals for each of these areas; do not hesitate to ask for an estimate. Until help arrives, air out every room impacted, and cover the vents in the rooms so particles do not travel into your air ducts.
- Replace Carpers & Clean Hard Flooring
Since carpets absorb moisture, a lot of the time it is best to completely replace to ensure complete cleanliness of your home or business when water has been used to put out a fire. Water can also absorb into hard wood and underneath vinyl flooring, which can cause even more issues. It is important to get any type of flooring dry as quickly as possible.
If you are finding more and more issues when cleaning your flooring, give SERVPRO a call, and we can come help. We even have a floor drying system we can place that can save your real hard wood floors in a water loss situation.
- Avoid Smearing Soot Into Clothing
One of the hardest things to clean after a fire loss is textiles (clothing, drapes, curtains, blankets, etc.). Be sure you do not scrub the items or throw them into a regular washing machine. You can call a local dry cleaner and ask what they suggest doing, or you can give us a call and we can do an emergency wash on items you need immediately. We have the Esporta Wash System in house, which can wash much more than a regular washing machine and can take out soot and smoke smell.
- Scrub, Soak and Clean Dishes
Your dishes can potentially be some of the most expensive items in your home, and something you do not want to have to replace. You also want to have these 100% clean, simply because they are what touch your food. To clean them, let them first soak in a solution of water and bleach (2 tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water) for 20 minutes. Then scrub the items. If this does not take out the smell or the soot itself, cut your losses and toss out the item. NOTE: wooden items are probably not salvageable, since they will soak up water during the soaking process.
For more information, feel free to contact us at 270-659-0067 and we can have someone come out and give you a free quote. Let us make it “Like it never even happened.”