Fire Damage Restoration

While looking at an elegantly designed fireplace, what types of feelings do you experience? Like many people, you may be thinking that fire has the power to mesmerize with its elegance and beauty. No doubt fire can be a feast for your senses, but only when it remains confined to the boundaries of a fireplace. When it comes out of the fireplace, damaging infernos can make your life as black as soot.

It is a fact that no one can stand in front of raging fire. Fire simply doesn’t care who you are or how expensive the belongings in your home may be. In a matter of seconds, homes can vanish like they were never there.

Although fire damage restoration is a tricky process, there are certain guidelines that can make the process much easier.

Basic guidelines for fire restoration:

It is essential to mention that there is a difference between fire restoration and flood restoration, as damage caused by a fire can be much greater and some objects may even be irrecoverable. While keeping this in mind, it is helpful to divide the restoration process into the following categories:

  1. Soft Materials

  2. Porous Hard Materials

  3. Less Porous Hard Materials

Now let us delve into the details of the fire cleanup and restoration process of the objects that fall in the abovementioned categories.

Soft Materials:

All of your carpets, upholstered furniture, clothes and curtains fall into the category of soft materials. While cleaning these objects, it is essential to keep following points in mind:

  • First, start by dealing with the soot left on the items. To remove soot, use a powerful vacuum cleaner, but hold it at an angle – otherwise, the soot will become more firmly deposited in your curtains and clothes.

  • To clean your carpets, it is a good idea to consult a carpet cleaning company for the best results. These carpet cleaning companies can handle the matter in a professional and systematic way. Otherwise, you can use a rotary scrubber to scrub the carpets, or a detergent for steam cleaning.

Smoke odors can linger for a long time in soft materials like clothes and curtains. It is therefore a good idea to use chemicals to deodorize the fabric before cleaning it.

Porous Hard Materials:

Painted surfaces, plaster, wallpaper, and exposed wood all fall in this category. It can be an extensive process to clean objects made of porous hard materials in a fire damaged property. The following options may prove useful:

  • Always remove soot before actually beginning the cleaning process. Use a dry chemical sponge to remove soot from porous hard materials. Smoke restoration should be the next task.

  • After soot and smoke have been removed, check to see if your walls require repainting. Also, if you remove damaged wallpaper quickly, it will be much easier to complete the cleaning process without unnecessary expense.

  • After removing any plaster or painted surfaces that have been damaged, you should then ventilate the area in order to remove the smoke odor.

Less Porous Hard Materials:

Sealed woods, counter tops, glass, appliances, metals and vinyl wallpapers can all be placed in this category.

  • To clean fire damaged furniture, use a sponge and detergent or a chemical solution.

  • Before cleaning appliances, make sure that there is no danger of electric shock.

Items made of these less porous hard materials are the easiest to clean and restore in a fire damaged property.