It’s a situation no homeowner wants to deal with – you had a fire in your home. Maybe it was caused by an electrical short, some spilled grease in the kitchen, or a poorly-placed space heater. However it happened, you have a problem on your hands.
What do you do now?
It can seem overwhelming to contend with the aftermath of a fire, but like other home damage issues (such as water or mold), fire and smoke damage can produce more significant problems than the incident itself.
As such, your next step is to consult an experienced provider of fire and smoke restoration services. These professionals will help you assess the damage, clean out your home, and help bring everything back to its ideal state.
What Happens When You Have a Home Fire?
Before we get into the specifics of home restoration, let’s take a step back and look at what happens to your home when you have a house fire.
When objects catch flame, they burn and generate ash, acidic soot, and smoke. These combustion by-products hang in the air, leaching into fabrics, furniture, and even wallpaper and ceilings. And as the ash and soot settles, it coats the floor and creates a gritty layer of soot that discolors carpets, furniture, contents and clothing.
And even after you put the fire out, these smoke and ash by-products tend to linger until the premises can be ventilated and cleaned. Of course, bigger home fires may produce even worse problems, such as structural damage and collapse, but a house fire of any size will produce ash and sooty residues that you’ll need to deal with.
The Health Risks of Untreated Fire/Smoke Damage
A house fire is certainly traumatic, but your problems don’t end when the fire is out. All that ash, soot, and smoke hangs in your home and creates a huge mess that needs to be cleaned up.
The odor and dirtiness of the aftermath is bad enough, not to mention the property damage that these by-products can cause. But the real problem has to do with health. If inhaled, this debris can make you sick or contribute to pre-existing health conditions. Common symptoms of smoke and ash inhalation include respiratory irritation, shortness of breath, and cardiovascular weakness.
As such, you need to make sure that, if a house fire does occur, you take the appropriate home restoration steps to put things back in order.
Get Your Life Back With Home Restoration
Home restoration is an essential part of getting your home back after an unexpected fire, water leak, or mold problem. Typically, those dealing with home repair issues will seek out a provider of home restoration services who can help walk them through the process.
Fire and Smoke Remediation
Fire remediation services involve assessing the extent of fire damage, which materials can be cleaned, which need to be removed, and how to replace these elements without excessive cost to the customer.
One of the first things your fire restoration provider will do is consider the source of the fire. Protein based fires produce a very different type of ash and soot than say a cellulose (wood or paper fire). Next they will need to determine the extent of the damage. Which objects were directly affected? Which have experienced secondhand heat damage? They’ll perform a complete audit of your house to see how extensive your cleaning services will need to be.
The next step is to determine which items need to be replaced and which can be cleaned. In some cases, the cost of replacement may actually be cheaper than the cost of restoration. Typically, hard surfaces and nonporous materials are most suitable for cleaning, though this isn’t an ironclad rule. Home restoration providers work with accredited partners and other home cleaning providers to build out their renovation capabilities, so even your fire-damaged couches, chairs, or other furniture may be able to be cleaned.
These providers will go through your home, dispose of damaged items, and send off your other home items for off-site cleaning and restoration. From there, they’ll leverage a suite of cleaning products based on the type of fire and resulting residue to scrub your carpet, walls and ceilings. These professional-grade cleaning tools are great at getting dirty ash and soot out of soft fabrics, and textured surfaces especially when applied shortly after the fire itself.
The same rules apply to smoke remediation, which is often done in conjunction with fire restoration. Home restoration providers will look at which of your possessions were touched by smoke, how deeply it absorbed into the fibers, and how much cleaning will be required. They’ll then leverage cleaning and deodorizing tools that remove smoke particles from the air.
However, note that smoke remediation services can be performed on their own as well, even when no fire occurred. For example, homes with heavy tobacco use may be good candidates for smoke remediation services that remove the pesky odor of cigarettes from fabrics and even hard surfaces.
Get Your House in Order With Home Restoration
It’s natural to feel anxious after a house fire of any kind, but home restoration services can provide care, support, and peace of mind in dealing with the aftermath. If you’ve had to deal with a recent home fire in central Florida, our team is here to help. Contact us at Central Florida Restoration Solutions to learn about our fire remediation services, our home restoration approach, and our 24/7 emergency support. No matter what happens, help is only a call away.
