Did you know that the effect of smoke damage in house can be far-reaching? Although it is not a common occurrence, its consequences can be deadly. It's often expensive and can include water damage also. That is why there is no way to take it lightly at all. The smoke damage is itself a large part but a little bit minor from fire damage. Whatever the reason for smoke or fire, the damage is usually widespread. Even if it is not regulated at the right time, there may be danger of casualties. We will discuss fire and smoke damage repair and cleaning methods in this article. But, it is essential to know first exactly what it is before considering smoke repair and cleaning. Let us see.
Fire and smoke damage
First of all, let’s say that not all smoke damage is caused by fire. A large blaze alone can cause discoloration and even warping, but it is not smoke damage exactly. In fact, smoke is more than smell and stain. Sometimes it contains an acidic compound that corrodes etch glass and metal. It is both visible and invisible, toxic, and harmful for people and even for a pet also. The health hazard causes by smoke can linger for days.
There are two common causes of occurring fire, and smoke damage is a cooking masterpiece that has gone away and faulty electrical work. Let us focus on these particular causes in detail.
Stove fire creates a massive amount of black smoke, and it is one of the most common reasons for smoke damage. If you caught it early, the flame tends to be small, but they cause your house to smell foul quickly. This foul smell can be eliminated in just a few days if you can be appropriately abated.
Also, due to carelessness, cooking fires can result in many major accidents. As a result, not only your kitchen may even damage the entire house also.
Wrong and defective wiring, old appliances or fixture, and damaged outlets are the leading causes of electrical fires. Generally, smoke from these fires is created later. At first, it spread the burning smells of plastic, though it is also quite passionate. This plastic burnt odor can also be stuck in your home for long periods unless it is timely to remove it.
How to clean smoke damage from your home
Smoke damage clean up is a step that you should take just immediately after a fire. Proper and enough ventilation will help some smoke particles to leave your home and will not settle onto other items. As quickly as possible, you can clean this damage; it will reduce the chance of cross-contamination. Let's see how you can clean a damaged house easily with smoke from a fire.
How to clean the surface and wall:
- Ventilate: At first and it is most important to open all windows. If it is cold inside your house, you should do so even if you are wearing a jacket because of the proper ventilation of your house. Keep open all windows and doors in your home. For encouraging the airflow, you can also use fans. To prevent the spreading of the smoke, turn off your HVAC system immediately
- Protect yourself: Before you start cleaning, you must ensure your proper protection. Smoke, soot, and debris can be dangerous if you inhale. So use masks and gloves, and even long sleeves and pants also essential to protect the skin. Do not forget to wear eye protection. Cover or, if possible, remove those furniture or household objects that are not damaged. It there is any room that is undamaged, then remove the furniture into that room and seal off before start cleaning.
- Vacuum: Usually, house smoke damage comes in an ugly black stain and odor. If there are loose soot particles, and debris then removes them with a vacuum with upholstery attachment.This type of vacuum has sturdy suction powder, and they are the best for this task. Take the attached brush and clean the affected area lightly, then vacuuming the loose particles. Do not scrub at all; it may leave worse stains.
- Dry cleaning sponges:The Drycleaning sponge of chemical sponge is the best to wipe the smoke and soot stains. It is an essential step because these sponges contain special chemicals to remove stains from the wall. Before using a dry cleaning sponge, you should never use water or soot cleaner
- Liquid cleaners: After removing as much stain as possible with the dry cleaning sponge, you should use a liquid cleaner. You can use white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, paint thinner as a liquid cleaner, or any commercial smoke/soot remover, but do not forget to follow the manufacturer’s direction. Next, it will be better to detergent, dish soap, or TSP for proper clean. Add a few tablespoons of detergent, dish soap, or TSP in a gallon of hot water and wash your smokehouse with sponge or rag.
- Dry properly: Once you clean the affected area properly, dry the surface and wall properly with a clean rag. You also use a fan to dry quickly. Though these steps will clean the affected surface and wall properly, the smell of smoke odors probably still remain. There is nothing to worry about at all, and this smell will dissipate within a few days
How to clean item and furniture
- Upholstery and curtains:Use vacuum with an upholstery attachment to remove smoke particles, and black soot from upholstery and curtains. As these items are sensitive, you must be so careful to clean them. Dry upholstered furniture, wet carpets, and draperies as soon as possible for preventing mold and mildew. Use dehumidifiers and fans to dry draperies and carpets
- Wood furniture:You may have to be a little bit tricky to clean wood furniture. If you do not use the right cleaning agent, you can be stripping the stain along with the varnish. There is some cleaning product that can also rust the metal frame. So pick the right cleaning product for each material.
- Bedding and clothing:The clothing and bedding come easily into the contact of smoke and even when they are inside a closed drawer. It may be enough if you simply wash them to remove the smoke smell. If the odor is much strong, then a commercial cleaning detergent may be needed.
- Hardwood Floors:Usually, hardwood floors are leaky. As a result, the smoke particles get into the floor and cause damage. Sometimes, you may need to refinish the floor, or if the damage is extensive, then you may have to replace it entirely. If the smoke damage is not much, then a simple mopping and deodorizing in enough for the hardwood floor.
Fire damage repair
After a fire accident, there will be fire and smoke damage in house. As firefighters sprinkle water to extinguish the flames, fire damage comes along with water damage also. When this unfortunate event of fire occurs in your home, there is a process that helps you and your family to get back on your track to normalcy as soon as possible. Here is an idea or outline of fire damage repair that you can do yourself.
Since Fair Damage Repair is quite a risky job, you need to prepare well and start doing this. So we divided the two phases into how to make this repair work easier and safer. The first is to prepare for the repair of the damaged area and then do repairing.
Preparation for fire damage repair
- Rapid action can minimize damage: Quick action is mandatory to reduce damage. Smoke and soot consist primarily of carbon and other chemicals. These particles and water present at your house after the fire. If you do not start repairing quickly, the damage can increase, and you may have to face a significant loss.
- Ensure your safety first: Just remember one thing that never enters in a fire-damage area until the fire officials give you the clearance. Your safety is the first requirement. The affected area may at risk of having some toxic chemicals and hazardous particles, which can be a health issue for you. And to avoid any health risk, you need to arrange bellow safety attire: a) A bodysuit made from plastic b) Waterproof boots c) Goggles d) A breathing mask e) Industrial-strength cleaning gloves
- Assess the degree of damage: Assess the degree of fire damage is very important. After any fire incident, the loss is varied depending on the intensity of the fire. At first, inspect the affected area and assess the damage now estimate an approximate time and cost to fix your property. Do not forget to make a backup plan if you are in danger while doing fire damage repair work.
- Isolate unsafe areas: Inspect and mark the dangerous zones and isolate them must. Water is used to control the fire and extinguish it completely. So the presence of water can be in the affected area. So some places in the affected area may be unsafe for you. So, identify the unsafe places at the beginning and isolate them.
- Air quality: It is important to take an instant action to recover the affected area. Due to the contact and combination of various substances with the fire, the air can become toxic. Also, if you delay in starting the repairing work, there can grow molds, mildew, soot, etc. that can cause odor. The long-time odors can interact with the surface, and you may have to face some more difficulties. Allow enough air moves to remove odor. Use dehumidifiers to remove the odor quickly.
- Sanitization and property cleanup: It is one of the most crucial steps to repair fire damage. Luckily if the fire doesn't do too much damage to your home, you will probably be able to do the repair and cleaning yourself. However, you should not make a delay to start this task. Keep in mind that the longer you start repairing the damage will increase. Clean the smoke damage by following the above procedure
Start fire damage repairing work
Your fire-damaged home is almost ready to be fixed, now you can begin the repair work. While this preparation is long, it is essential for your safety.
- Protect the ingress points and breaches: When any fire incident occurs, there are create many ingress points or breaches like missing or broken doors, and windows, holes in the ceiling can temporarily be sealed with wood panels, plastic sheeting, or some things. As soon as possible, remove these things to make smooth your repairing task.
- Remove debris: Unexpected fire usually leaves plenty of burned materials on the ground, such as furnishing, acoustic ceiling tiles, charred rugs, etc. Try to remove this debris quickly because these can mix with soot and water and continue to cause damage to your house. As a result, your repairing expenses can increase.
- Soot cleaning:Soot is the primary element of burned materials. Most of the fire include a few types of burning materials, depending on what was burned. As a result, soot can be acidic also. The textured and the porous surface are the most vulnerable for soot stain. Even after the fire soot begin to discolor plastic, unburnt wood, grout, certain stones, textiles, and carpeting. So soot cleaning is very important before repairing other objects.
- Prevent mold and mildew: The wet and humid weather is the ideal place to grow mold spores, and it is the ultimate cause of the fungus. In a dark and damp place, mold can produce mildew. It is often seen that the recovery of the affected area started very late after the fire accident. As water is used to extinguish the fire, the absence of water exists in the affected area. As a result, not using for long periods and can help to grow mold like black or green mold in house from the stream.
And therefore, it is very important to take a step to prevent mold during fire damage repair. Allow enough air moves to remove mold and mildew. The dehumidifiers also help to remove water that can promote mildew growth.
- Possession removal: In case of more destructive fire, it may be essential to remove some personal belongings to prevent them from further harm. If you are going to enter into the fire-damaged area for the first time, then do not forget to wear your safety attires. First, try to find only those items that are completely intact and reusable. It is better not to take the risk of entering the affected area to recover those items which have been wasted in fire and smoke and have been unable to recover.
Some specialized equipment in fire damage repairs
If you decide to do the fire damage repair job on your own, you may need some special equipment. Besides, the size of the fire-damaged area, materials that were burned, type of building, ventilation of the property, the time delay, and many other factors have to consider to select the size, model, and amount of equipment required for the restoration.
To repair fire and smoke damage in the house, you must need an air scrubber, dehumidifiers, air movers, and other tools for each specific job.
Air Scrubbers
Air scrubber is usually used for removing pollutants from the atmosphere. This equipment uses a filtration system to suck air through an intake. After intake, the polluted air passes through a filter and releases clean air. This is an ongoing process. Because the fresh air mixes with the polluted air and comes out again become clean through the scrubber. Thus slowly, the air starts to the cleaner. How long the air in the affected area may take to be completely clean depend on some issues
- The size of the affected area
- The initial smoke density
- The ventilation of the room
- The ability of the filter
Dehumidifiers
You can use a dehumidifier to remove moisture from the air. Without a dehumidifier, the moisture drying process of a fire-damaged area can slow. It can vapor water of air and dry the moisture and prevent to grow mold and mildew
Air mover
An air mover work just like a handheld hairdryer. It draws air in using intake and directs it out of a port. This machine is essential to make faster the drying of walls, carpet, floors, and furnishings.
Wrapping up
Smoke damage in house is not a simple matter from any aspect. If such an accident happened in your home, then it is definitely a tragedy. Therefore, it is necessary to try to recover it as early as possible to avoid more damage. If you want to do the repair work on your own, then, of course, safety as a prime concern. If there is an unforeseen occurrence during the recovery process, you must have a backup plan in place to help you safely evade it. Finally, we believe prevention is better than cure. So, be careful not to let accidents happen like fire at home.
