Restoration Tips for Fire Damage

6/10/2020 (Permalink)

Experiencing a fire in your home or commercial office can be terrifying and stressful. SERVPRO of West Greenville County understands the stress that comes with restoring your home after a fire, and we are here to help some of that stress go away. 

Below are what we believe to be some of the most important fire damage restoration tips:

Limit Movement in the Building

Be sure to limit the amount of movement and activity in the building where the fire occurred. This prevents the soot from spreading throughout the house and becoming harder to clean. You do not want to make the damage to your home worse. 

Remove Smoke Damage

A lot of the damage from a fire occurs to the walls of the home or building. Whether your walls are painted or you have wallpaper you will need to clean them. If the fire is minor, you most likely can scrub your walls with bleach and detergents to clean them. If the fire is more serious you will probably want to repaint, but give time for the walls to be cleaned and dried. Soot often appears on walls after a fire. Soot is greasy, so be sure to dust this off of the walls before cleaning them.

Remove Mold & Mildew

Often times mold and mildew appears in your home after a fire due to the water that is used to put out the fire. We highly recommend having a fire damage restoration service inspect your house for mold and mildew to help prevent another serious problem from entering your home. Here at SERVPRO we can help restore your home after a fire and make sure no mold appears! 

Repair Carpet and Flooring

Just like the water used to put out the fire can cause mold and mildew, the water can also cause immense damage to your floors. Your carpet and floors end up absorbing a lot of the water that is used to put out the fire. Water can also get under and in the cracks of flooring. This then leads to water damage in your home. Luckily, we are a water and fire damage restoration service, so we can tackle both!

Clean Clothing Properly 

Making sure you clean your clothes after a fire is extremely important. We want to make sure you are able to restore as many things as possible. Be sure to not smear the greasy soot into your clothing- this will be very difficult to get out. Also don't rush to put your clothes in the washing machine. Often times, getting them professionally dry cleaned will be your best option.

Clean Dishes Thoroughly

It is extremely important to wash all of your dishes thoroughly after a house fire because what you put on your dishes will be put into your body. Be sure to scrub all dishes and let them soak in a solution of water and bleach for about 20-30 minutes, then scrub some more. The solution should contain 2 tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water. Throw out any dishes that do not become fully cleaned.

Call SERVPRO of West Greenville County to help you with your fire damage restoration needs!!