How Does Smoke Damage Affect Your Home’s Contents?

Many people are not aware that even the smallest of home fires can result in significant smoke damage in a home. Some of the main things that a house fire will take a toll on are your personal belongings. Not to mention, the longer you wait to clean up, the more difficult it will become to get your items back to their original condition. In this post, we are going to give you more information about how smoke can damage your home and the contents in it. Continue reading below to learn more.

Which Items Can Be Salvaged?

While you may not be sure about which items in your home can be salvaged and which ones cannot, the experts at All Clear Restoration are very aware and here to help. Let’s discuss what can and cannot be salvaged in a timely manner, as well as which tools and cleaning methods are most effective for you to use.

How Are Damaged Items To Be Handled?

There are many different factors that can determine how damaged items are handled. These include but are not limited to temperature, the type of fire (smoldering or blazing), as well as the types of materials that were burned. Complicating matters even more, smoke particles are able to easily penetrate any crevice or crack, leaving items that were in the home but not exposed to the fire directly to smell of smoke for months after the fire happens. There are many steps you can take in order to save as many of your belongings as possible. Things like properly ventilating your home, removing debris, cleaning and neutralizing odors are important and critical. On the other hand, and as we mentioned before, time is the most important component when you want to complete successful smoke remediation.

Smoke Damage & Surface Types

  • Curtain and Upholstery
    Most people think they should vacuum their curtains and upholstery with an upright vacuum but the standard brushes and beaters on these machines are likely to force the soot deeper. In order to clean these surfaces, you are going to need the right filter, hose attachment, and technique.
  • Clothes and Bedding
    Unburned chemicals may not be visible to the naked eye, but they do have to be completely removed before the odor will be gone. This takes certain washing regimens as well as cleaning chemicals.
  • Furniture and Carpet
    We wouldn’t recommend cleaning your furniture when it remains on your carpet. Doing this could lead to further carpet damage as wooden furniture can stain carpet with dyes. Be sure to use protective barriers or keep your furniture elsewhere until it is clean and dry.

Contact The All Clear Restoration Today!

In our next post, we will discuss more about how you can ensure that you get all of these items clean in a timely manner so that you can salvage more than you don’t after there is a fire in your home. Until then, feel free to call the team at All Clear Restoration to assist you with any post-fire remediation needs you might have.