Removing smoke damage odor!

No matter the severity of the fire in your home, you are probably going to experience some degree of smoke damage afterward. With smoke comes another inconvenience alongside the visible damage: the lingering smell. Smoke is an unpleasant odor to begin with, but it can also have dangerous effects on your health with continued inhalation. To begin the clean up process and eliminate the smell, here are the important steps you have to take.

Wear Protection at All Times

Before you begin anything, you need to take proper precautions to protect yourself from smoke exposure. This includes wearing a mask to cover your nose and mouth, goggles, and long, protective gloves. When dealing with any extensive clean up processes like this, whether it is smoke, mold removal, or other damage, make sure to wear appropriate protective materials to avoid compromising your health and safety while restoring your property.

Ventilate

Where possible, open windows and exterior doors throughout your home to let toxic smoke and smell out of the contained area. This will lessen the impact of the odor, and will also aid in the removal of harmful particles in your home. After a fire, you also need to replace all of your HVAC filters before you turn your air back on; smoke particles get easily stuck in them, and can circulate throughout your property once your unit is turned back on, requiring additional cleanup.

Clean Everything

In this article by House Logic, to completely remove all traces of smoke damage, you are going to have to do a lot of scrubbing. There will be some items damaged beyond repair, which you will unfortunately have to throw away. Any traces of smoke or soot on items will need to be wiped down thoroughly, down to your light bulbs. Any fabrics should be washed, both for odor and smoke particles, and you will need to have your carpets professionally cleaned. When it comes to washing your affected walls and ceilings, soot should wipe away rather easily with a sponge, but if the damage is deeper, the experts recommend using a vinegar-based spray product or a paint thinner (though make sure you use this in a well-ventilated environment).

Call Us for Any Help

Out of the utmost concern for your family’s long-term safety, we encourage you to call a member of our team help you restore your home from fire and smoke damage. Every technician we hire at Restoration 1 of Durham-Raleigh is certified, experienced, and will make sure your home is repaired up to local code when we are done. You can feel confident in us to eradicate the odor and make sure the air you are breathing is pure and healthy.