Smoke Damage

If you have smoke damage or soot from a fire in your home or business, it can be challenging to clean and remove all the smoke and soot. Not only that, if you attempt to clean and do not use the proper procedures you could cause more harm and damage to your home than good. Soot is oily and easily stains carpets, draperies, and other household textiles. For this reason, you must remove it before you attempt to clean or deodorize items. If possible, it’s best to hire a professional restoration company to clean and deodorize your home and household textiles.

Smoke Damage Removal Process

The first step in smoke damage removal is to wipe all excess soot off horizontal surfaces or remove it with HEPA vacuums. After loose soot is cleaned up, we begin cleaning the walls and structure with a dry chem sponge and other specialty cleaning procedures.

Different techniques may be used with different surfaces and materials:

• Walls cleaned with a dry chemical sponge from top to bottom and side to side. Any remaining stains are gently rubbed with a soft cloth and a painting thinner or rubbing alcohol applied to it.
• Finished wood will require cleaning with cotton rags and oil soap. Steel wool or some degreaser may be also used if more agitation is needed.
• Since soot quickly embeds into the unfinished wood creating dark stains, more efforts will be needed to clean it. This often entails applying decreaser and using fine grit sandpaper.
• Plastic is cleaned with a soft sponge and a solution of water and detergent or bleach.      
• Textiles cleaning efforts will depend much on how you removed soot from the surfaces. It is important that you do not use vacuum attachment and hold the vacuum cleaner nozzle above the surface, as frushed will only force soot into fibers. Further cleaning techniques depend on the type of cleaning allowed for the fabric.  

At this point, your property structure should be cleaned but you probably still have an odor issue. You may use specific sprays or solutions, but the best effect is achieved only by professional deodorization techniques: thermal fogging, TOMI SteraMist, hydroxyl radicals, and ozone machine.

These deodorization techniques will effectively tackle the fire and smoke odors, as well as other household odors you might be willing to eliminate such as foul odors from cooking, pet urine or feces, tobacco smoke, mold and mildew odors that remain after mold remediation.

Do it yourself approach to smoke damage removal might only be good in case of minor fire damage. Whenever you have extensive fire damage, it is recommended to refer to smoke damage removal professionals, as additional time and unproven cleaning techniques can cause further damage to your property.

Experts from Kidd’s Restoration and Cleaning Services are trained and experienced in fast and effective smoke damage cleanup and deodorization. Call us 24/7 of immediate mitigation of a smoke problem.