Smoke Damage Restoration Blog

When you are dealing with smoke damage it’s important to realize that smoke damage cleaning is going to be necessary, whether by you or a professional. When you have fire smoke damage in a location it can be very dangerous or counterproductive to not restore it properly. You could have your walls with smoke damage, your carpet, soot everywhere, and lots of other smoke damage cleaning you need to take part in, but if you don’t have the right tools, the smoke damaged areas might not be in your ability to full repair.

Learning how to clean smoke damage might be better suited at another time and not if you are in a rush to get your living space back to normal. Smoke damage clean up can take a lot of time and effort and when you want to remove smoke damage you need to make sure it’s done right, so it doesn’t hurt you later on. Smoke damage removal for your home is a tough process and even tougher if you’ve never done it before. The smoke damage smell can be terrible, and it can stick in the walls. In order to remove smoke damage you need the right tools, knowledge, patience and a little luck never hurts. To clean the smoke damage from the fire you should make sure you have all of these and if you don’t hire a professional because if you don’t do it right now, or the right way, it might become worse, quicker than you think.

Most people are ready to start cleaning their home after they incur smoke damage, but unless you do it right, with the help or suggestions of a professional who deals with it all the time, your efforts could be futile or even worse, you could cause more damage than was already done from the smoke. The first step should be to contact the insurance agency for the house or location that suffered the smoke damage. One the fire has been put out, that should be the very first thing you do. The insurance agency should be able to provide you information on what to do next as far as restoration or cleaning, even replacment of the items lost or damaged during the fire.

If you are just a renter of the location then you should let the owner or landlord/landlady know about the fire and the damage that happened. The insurance company might be able to recommend a professional fire restoration expert. If this so, I would suggest taking their advice, and then do some shopping on the side, just make sure there are no conflicts. Once the expert comes out they can give you all the information you need, and give you suggestions to prevent any more damage from occuring. They can also let you know which item is in what situation as far as getting replaced, refurbished or simply to count as a total lost. When you are dealing with smoke damage cleaning, restoration or repair these are all things you need to keep in mind.

If you don’t hire a professional smoke damage restorer you can try to minimize any further damage by following a few simple steps. First things first, make sure that the fire marshall for your area gives you permission to do anything before you start. You don’t want to go outside of their rules or guidelines and end up getting in any trouble for your efforts, that’s the last thing you need at this point in time. Do not enter the location that suffered the smoke damage until you do that, obviously.

You should try to get the air circulation through the location. You can do that by opening windows, or get a fan or more than one to blow the air around and get it moving. Remember that if there is still some water damage in the area, and you live in warm weather, you would probably do better by keeping your windows close and just using a dehumidifier. If you live in cold weather then turning on your heater could remove some of the moisture. Make sure you change your furnace filter properly and often enough because it will be working overtime by doing that.

This is where you might want to get a professional to step in, because if you don’t have the right cleaning products, or tools you might be wasting your time, or worsening the situtation you already have found yourself in. Smoke Damage Cleaning is not the easiest thing to accomplish and because of this, there are companies and individuals who are properly trained and educated to do it. The bad news is that smoke damage restoration companies can be expensive, so I recommened doing what you can, properly, then hiring them for the rest. This usually will save you money and let you rest at ease knowing you did all you could for the situation before opting to spend money on it.

One semi-difficult thing to do is to remove the soot that has formed around your tiling. Soot can be very oily and will stain your carpets extremely easily. It can also stain any draperies you have, such as curtains. Because of this, you should try remove it before you attempt to clean or deodorize any such items. Doing so in the wrong order will only cause you more of a headache. One way to remove soot is to use a vacuum cleaner nozzle and gently cover the surface. Make sure you don’t have bulky attachments or a regular vacuum because those brushes are usually too harsh for the job you are needing to accomplish.

Any items that can be dried, do that immediately. Fans and dehumidifiers can be used to dry carpets and rugs, also curtains and other sorts of items. If you don’t do this soon enough, the wet items can cause further damage by getting a build up or mold, mildew and things of that nature.

Any brass or copper items should be removed, cleaned using the proper cleaning supplies. If you have any aluminum foil or plastic wrap use it to put aruond furniture legs. This will prevent any further damage from the smoke. If you have any rugs those obviously should be removed, cleaned and held in a different location until the ground underneath where they need to be located can be dried and is fully repaired. Smoke Damage Cleaning isn’t super hard, just make sure you are doing it right.

Smoke odor is one of those annoying things that can’t be directly seen or cleaned so it creates a little bit harder of a problem for those suffering from recent smoke damage. Smoke damage repair is a long process that contains many variables and this is just one of those variables. Smoke odor might be several places, such as in your clothes, furniture materials, your carpets or curtains and other places. Make sure you deoderize them before you clean them, or it might not work. Make sure you do this in the right odor for optimal smoke damage restoration success.

There are things called ‘counteractants’ you can use to break up the molecules of the smoke and also get rid of the smell, but you should consult an expert before using them. This is just one of those things when hiring a professional might be your best bet. There are different types of counteractant so it’s important to know which one to use. They interact differently with whatever materials you plan on cleaning as well. They can be used on all the above mentioned items in your house.

Restorers might be used for your clothes. Dry cleaners could be adapated as ozone treatments and those would also break up molecules of the smoke remnants left behind and get rid of the annoying odor. This is something that should be done only after your cover your house in the proper tent, just beacuse the toxins can be dangerous and you only want them in the specific places they should go. Do not risk anything with your health. You made it out of this fire okay, so let’s make sure you stay that way. Following these steps make Smoke Damage Restoration a lot easier and safer for you.