Fire Restoration Fundamentals

1/20/2019 (Permalink)

Even the smallest house fire requires thorough fire restoration efforts to completely clean your home and possessions.

If you’ve suffered fire damage, you know that restoring your home and property is challenging. First, you need to decide whether you’ll do the restoration on your own or hire highly trained restoration specialists who will guarantee their work, like the professionals at SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield. If you choose to do the work yourself, these are the best tips we give people who ask about fire damage restoration.

Fire Damage Restoration Basics: Think Clean
Until your house is restored, limit your activity and movement in the house. This helps prevent soot particles from being ground into upholstery and carpets. Change your HVAC filter and tape double layers of cheesecloth over air registers. Wash hands often so you don’t further soil upholstery, walls and woodwork.

Protect your possessions by placing clean towels or old linens on rugs, upholstery and carpet traffic areas. Wash both sides of the leaves on your houseplants. Finally, determine the best cleaning method for each particular job (for example, clean and protect chrome with a light coating of petroleum jelly or oil).

Remove Smoke Damage from Walls
With any fire you’ll have some smoke damage to your walls, wall paper and paint. If the smoke damage is not too extensive, you should be able to scrub it clean with detergents and bleach. Because soot is greasy, dust as much of it off before trying to scrub a surface clean. Before repainting, make sure all surfaces are clean and thoroughly dry first.

Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield for Fire Damage Cleanup and Restoration at 860.649.0836

Get Rid of Mold and Mildew
The water used to put out your fire also introduced the real risk of mold and mildew into your home. SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield highly recommends you hire fire damage restoration professionals to deal with mold and mildew, because they can cause serious health effects, and it’s difficult for a nonprofessional to be sure he’s clean up all the areas affected.

Because mold and mildew can contaminate your furniture, carpets, clothing, mattresses, walls and vents, the most important thing to do is to air out every room and clean out all vents and filters.

Clean, Repair or Replace Flooring
Your floors and carpets absorb the worst of the damage from the water used to put out a fire. In almost every case, SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield recommends that you pull up and replace any water-damaged carpets. Because water can seep underneath vinyl flooring and into the cracks in hardwood, you must address this to prevent further damage down the road. If you have experience with flooring, you can lift it up and clean under it--but you may want to call a professional fire damage restoration company to assist you.

Clean Your Clothing
Cleaning smoke damage from clothing is one of the biggest jobs you’ll have after a fire. Make sure you don’t smear the greasy soot into the clothing or just throw the smoky clothes into the wash. Dry cleaning is often the best way to clean smoke-damaged clothing. Try to find a local dry cleaner who has experience with post-fire laundry. More tips on removing smoke odor can be found in our blog.

Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield for Fire Damage Cleanup and Restoration at 860.649.0836

Give Your Dishes Special Attention
Because your dishes are in contact with food, they must be thoroughly cleaned after a fire. Scrub all dishes well, soak them in a solution of bleach and water (2 tablespoons of bleach per gallon) for at least 20 minutes and then scrub again. If a dish, pot or pan won’t come clean, throw it out, especially rubber or wooden dishes that absorb smoke.

Help Is Here
The team at SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield has specialized training and experience in fire restoration services, natural disaster prevention, water damage, chemical cleanup, and natural disaster cleanup. Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield (860.649.0836) anytime.

Other Helpful Blog Posts
Every month on the SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield blog we publish educational articles on how Manchester and Mansfield residents can protect their homes and businesses from disasters and how to deal with mold, fire, water, sewage, storm and other damage. Here are a few blog posts that you might find helpful:

SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield
We serve Amston, Andover, Bolton, Columbia, Coventry, Hebron, Manchester, Mansfield and Storrs, Connecticut.
53 Slater Street, Unit 2, Manchester, CT 06042
IICRC Certified
Ralph DiCristofaro
Certified SERVPRO technicians
Call 860.649.0836
24-hour emergency service

For help after a fire, call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield today at 860.649.0836