Smoke Damage Cleanup

Cleaning up smoke damage after a fire can be a pretty involved task, but if you know what you are doing and follow a few simple rules, it might not be as difficult as you might think. Even though you might want to get the job done as quickly as possible, you might end up doing more harm than good if you do not take your time to do it correctly. Do the job right, not rushed.

If you have pets, the best thing for them is to remove them from the area as soon as possible. You need to keep your pets out of the home until you are done cleaning up the smoke and water damage done to the home after the fire trucks have gone. Birds are especially sensitive to smoke and chemicals in the air, so if you had a pet bird in the home at the time of the fire, you should have it examined by a vet.

Use a vacuum cleaner to clean up any soot and other particles from your furniture and floors, after you are certain that the electrical circuitry in the home was not damaged by the water poured into the home by the fire truck.

Plants should be rinsed with water as soon as possible, but be sure not to drown the plant’s soil in an excess amount of water. If the soil has been saturated by the water from the fire truck and you want to save the plant, the best thing to do is to put it in a new pot with new soil.

Open the windows and doors in your home so air can circulate and help remove all the particles from the air inside. This will help remove the smell of smoke from the home, as well.

Do not sit down on upholstered furniture that has not been cleaned yet. This will only rub the soot down into the fabric and make it more difficult to remove.

Sending your clothes to an ordinary dry cleaner can irreparably damage your clothes.

Do not eat any foods that were in the home at the time of the fire. This includes everything that was in the home, no matter what it is. Replace everything in the home that was edible.

Ceilings and walls that have been smoke damaged can sometimes be cleaned and restored to their former selves, but heavier deposits of smoke must be specially treated so that the surface will accept being painted over again. Sometimes the stains cannot be removed and the surface must be painted.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.