Soot and Smoke Odor Removal Are Time Sensitive

Fires present a small window of restoration time before certain damage cannot be overcome or restored. AdvantaClean of Westchester, Rockland, and Stamford understands the urgency of cleaning up your home after fires, especially the considerable threats that soot and smoke damage present. Understanding the impact of soot-soiling and the spread of smoke can show the importance of securing professional cleanup services promptly after a fire gets extinguished.

A Proper Post-Fire Inspection

The first phase of fire damage restoration for your Greenwich home will be one of our experienced administrators reviewing the property and determining the extent of the fire's impact. Inspections focus on many specifics, such as the condition of your prized possessions, the structural integrity of the most heavily damaged rooms, and the mitigating steps that have the greatest impact. At this point, we will also look for your input regarding actions and items you wish to prioritize in the fire recovery process. 

Reaching the Soot and Smoke Damage 

Everything with fire damage restoration is a connected process, so specific cleanup strategies can only begin following other steps. Mitigation focuses first on clearing the paths for AdvantaClean professionals to reach soot-damaged surfaces and contents. We must overcome certain obstacles to achieve this, such as:

  • Debris Removal

Much like remnants of a campfire, when materials in your home get burned, heaps of debris, ash, and damaged structural elements must be removed and discarded. 

  • Water Cleanup

The water that first responders use to put out the fire in your home does not quickly dissipate and dry up, so water damage is another obstacle to getting the fire damage cleanup started. 

  • Controlled Demolition

You might not recognize your home after a fire because many materials are partially combusted and destroyed. Controlled demolition removes heavily impacted materials, leaving salvageable structural elements behind.

Soot Removal Practices 

Soot is a product of partial combustion, where carcinogenic particles are created and spread throughout the environment. While this can have a dire impact on surfaces affected, it also creates a volatile environment unsafe for those exposed. Some common fire damage cleanup approaches for soot include:

  • Surface Cleaning - Using cleaning agents with mechanical action to dissolve or remove soot deposits. 

  • Blasting - Media under water or air pressure that loosens and removes set-in soils without destroying the building material.

  • Chemical Sponges - Handheld products with a rubbery texture that can pull dry smoke soils from surfaces. 

Smoke Odor Removal Needs 

A strong smell in many house rooms is one of the first things you will notice after a fire. Clearing these harsh malodors requires deodorization products and equipment alongside fire damage cleanup practices, including tools like HEPA air scrubbers. These trap carcinogenic particles and make the environment easier to treat with neutralizing agents.

As if open-air smells were not offensive and formidable enough, we must also address trapped malodors in porous materials and soft contents. Clothing and upholstery can absorb smoke damage, requiring unique deodorizing approaches to address. Thermal fogging turns powerful neutralizers into a vapor that allows it to penetrate porous materials, clothing, and other impacted contents of your household.

Content Cleaning After a Fire 

Soot also creates a problem for the things you treasure the most in your home. Photographs, heirlooms, furniture - they become a part of what makes your house a home. When these are impacted by circulating soot in the environment, than on and off-site cleaning might be needed to help. Each of these affected objects gets evaluated on an item-by-item basis for salvageability.

Fire damage restoration is not universal from one home to the next. The professionals of AdvantaClean of Westchester, Rockland, and Stamford need to evaluate the condition of the house and its specific recovery obstacles to provide effective cleaning and soot removal strategies. All you need to make sure to do is call our team as soon as possible at (914) 505-6570 .

Schedule an Appointment or Call (914) 505-6570

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