Smoke Damage Restoration Steps

It would be stating the obvious to say that fires can cause extensive damage to homes and property. But the damage is not only limited to the easy to see soot and scorch marks that you would be confronted with once you are allowed to re-enter your home. Another lingering leftover from a house fire is the smoke damage that has become ingrained into the hard and soft surfaces of the house.

As a fire progresses inside a house, or anywhere for that matter, the heat expands the pores in the wall and the smoke is able to find its way into those pores and fill them up. As the fire is extinguished the house cools and the pores close again, trapping the smoke within them. The smoke odor is gradually released as the house warms up on sunny days and cools again at night. Effectively the house is breathing but it emits a sickeningly bad breath that reminds you every day of the traumatic fire.

The first step that you, as a fire victim, should take in beginning any restoration process is to contact your insurance company who should be able to assess the extent of the damage and advise you on what may be able to be saved, repaired or restored.

Before attempting to enter the home after a fire, there are some fire safety procedures that should be observed. The most critical of these is to wait until the fire department has given the all clear that it is safe to enter. A house that has been fire damaged is a very unstable environment. It is not always obvious that the fire has been completely extinguished and any sudden gust of wind could reignite the fire from what appears to be a smoldering ruin.

Also, if there are still walls and ceilings standing, as will be the case after relatively small house fires, the structure will have been weakened by the flames. Taking note of where you can and can’t walk as well as what you can and can’t touch is vital.

The smoke and fumes produced from the fire are highly toxic and can travel extensively throughout the house penetrating paint, carpet, clothes, curtains and upholstery. Furthermore, it can become trapped in air conditioning ducts, within walls and ceilings.

Whether your home has been affected by a raging inferno that has consumed the entire structure or a localized fire that looks to have only affected one room, there will be soot and smoke issues to deal with.

It may be tempting to try to use scented sprays and perfumes to try to combat the smoke odor that nearly overwhelms the room. But doing this will only mask the smell and will only mask the smell for a short period of time. After that the smoke odor will return, only this time it will be mingled with stale perfume creating an even more stomach-turning odor.

There are a number of different methods that professional fire damage restoration experts can employ to remove smoke from the house. It all depends on the type of cleaning or restore work that is involved and it certainly depends on the type of materials that have been smoke affected.

Cleaning Soft Materials

The first stage in cleaning fire damage in the house may involve general soot and ash removal from the floors and other surfaces such as rugs or carpets.

Soot is an oily substance and should be removed with a powerful vacuum that sucks straight off the surface that is being cleaned without the use of brushes. The brushes will push the soot deeper into the fabric and make the cleaning process even more difficult. Holding the nozzle of the vacuum just above the surface that is being cleaned will smoothly draw the soot up and away without the possibility of driving it into the fabric further.

A proper carpet cleaning will be required after the rest of the fire damage restoration process has been completed. When it comes time to do the carpet cleaning you will want to use a heavy duty rotary scrubber or an extraction machine. Many of these can be hired from the local supermarket or from a tool hire company.

You may wish to launder your clothes and bedclothes to remove the smoke odor from them. This will probably require multiple washings before the odor is completely removed. Soaking overnight before washing may improve results.

An alternative method to rid your clothes and other soft furnishings of lingering smoke odors is to use an ozone generator. This may either be done in a small room or in a portable tent, either way the materials are placed inside the chamber along with the ozone generator which then operates for any length of time from a few hours to a few days. The ozone works to break up the smoke molecules as it circulates through the clothing and, because ozone is heavier than air it eventually falls to the floor. The ozone treatment produces an oxidizing agent leaving a pleasant, fresh smell in place of the smoke odor.

This process may also be used by professional fire damage restorers on upholstered furniture, placing them in a tent and running the ozone generator, allowing the ozone to penetrate deeply into the upholstered fabric.

Cleaning Hard Surfaces

Here we return back to the smoke-laden pores of the house that intermittently release that smoke odor after being trapped during the fire. Thermal fogging is used to counter this process. Thermal fogging works by applying a heated fog, saturated with a deodorizing agent to the affected surfaces. The heat of the fog opens the pores and neutralizes the smoke odor. This method is the single most effective way to treat deeply smoke affected surfaces and hard materials.

While on the subject of thermal fogging, it can also be used to rid the air of smoke particulates that are still hanging in the air. The thermal fogging process bonds the mist particles to the soot and smoke particles and removes them from the air.

Smoke damage will cause discoloration on the walls and ceiling. The marks left behind are a sooty residue. If the charring has not gone too deeply into the surface of the walls or ceiling it may be possible to clean them. Use chemicals such as trisodium phosphate (TSP) diluted in warm water and scrub vigorously with a sponge. The TSP is a corrosive chemical so gloves and goggles must be warn as protection while working.

The washing process may require a number of applications before the surfaces are cleaned satisfactorily. If the walls or ceiling still display discoloration, it may be necessary to repaint.

It should be remembered that one cleaning agent will not be sufficient to clean all affected surfaces. Different agents work on different surfaces and what works best with what must be checked for potential problems. That’s if you are left with no choice but to attempt the restoration yourself.

All of these smoke damage restoration tips and techniques will be best carried out by the proper trained restoration professionals. Apart from working in a dangerous environment, you may be working with dangerous chemicals that could cause injury to you or further damage to your possessions if not used correctly. Fire damage restoration experts handle these products on a regular basis, can assess what can be saved and what cannot and are used to working in fire affected sites.

This short article is meant to give you a basic guideline of what to expect to happen in the process of restoring your home after a fire. It is not an instructional piece that you can use with the expectation that it is complete. The fire damage restoration experts will walk you through the process that they intend to use and, armed with this information, you will have a clearer understanding of what they are talking about.