If a fire damage has affected your home or business, you are probably incredibly eager to restore your space and leave the incident in the past. But rather than trying to tackle the project yourself, strongly consider handling a professional to handle your fire damage professional. Even people with a lot of home improvement or DIY expertise find it challenging to erase the effects of a fire. As a result, their efforts often fall short of what was expected or required. Consider just a few of the ways a professional can provide a superior standard of work.
What is Fire Damage Restoration?
Fire damage restoration is the process of returning a fire and smoke damaged property to pre-loss condition. Fire cleanup and restoration jobs can take weeks or months due to the destructive nature of the disaster.
Whereas, water damage restoration involves mitigating water and drying out the property — a task that can often be completed in days. Fire restoration may involve things like of property board up, demolition and reconstruction on top of tasks such as debris, odor and soot removal, contents cleaning and working to remove any disturbed hazards such as lead and asbestos. Finally, it’s also worth noting that fire damage and water damage often occur concurrently.
First, the property is doused with water while the fire department works to contain and extinguish the blaze. And sometimes, its pipes burst or melt during the fire, which leaks water into the structure. While you may have tremendous damage caused by the fire likewise, water damage can make a structure unsalvageable.
With that, the first task upon securing the property is water mitigation to remove remaining water before it can cause more damage. Let’s take a closer look at the fire damage restoration process.
Steps to Restore Fire Damage
Before your fire damage restoration contractor can even enter the property to assess the extent of fire damage, they must first receive the official go ahead from a licensed authority. Otherwise, a contractor could be entering an unsafe situation and risk injury. After they’ve been granted access to the property, here’s a typical look at how the fire damage restoration process is carried out from there:
1. Assessment of Damage
After first confirming the property is safe to enter, the first thing a fire damage restoration company must do is perform an assessment of the damage sustained in the fire and ensuing water intrusion. This typically involves assessing how far the flames and smoke have penetrated into the structure and how extensive any clean up is likely to be. This step also involves assessment of the contents inside the property to determine what should be discarded and what can be packed out and restored. At the end of a thorough assessment, the restoration company will have a better idea of the scope of the work, how long it will take and can begin formulating a cost estimate.
2. Security of Property & Debris Removal
After the assessment has been performed, the next step is securing the property. This includes installing fencing around the property, removing debris around the perimeter, and boarding up openings in the structure, as well as taping or sealing off parts of the roof to protect what’s left of the property from the weather. If certain areas of the property were not impacted by the fire, then it’s important for fire damage restoration professionals to ensure that this area is sealed off from the area that was impacted to minimize any cross contamination.
3. Demolition, Water Mitigation & Dry Out
The goal during this stage is to prevent further damage due to mold or corrosion by removing water and drying out the property. Personal property will be removed from the interior of the structure. Damaged drywall, flooring and other materials will be removed down to the studs as necessary. Water extraction crews will work with commercial equipment to dry out the structure. Roof tarps will be maintained during this stage to prevent further intrusion of water.
4. Clean Up & Smoke Removal
This is the most intensive part of a fire damage restoration job: clean up. This step typically involves a lot of manual labor to properly clean smoke and soot from interior and exterior surfaces. In many cases, every inch of the affected area will need to be cleaned. Following proper clean up, deodorizing agents are used to fully remove any lingering smoke odors.
If water damage restoration has also been performed, it may be necessary to sanitize or apply antimicrobial chemicals to halt any subsequent mold growth. Off site, any contents that have been packed out are also likely being restored to pre-loss condition. Clean up also involves duct cleaning to remove any soot, smoke or debris that may have settled in ducts.
5. Construction & Restoration
The final step in returning the property to pre-loss condition is performing any necessary fire damage restoration or to rebuild fire-damaged areas. In the case of a fire, parts of the structure may be completely unsalvageable during the initial assessment, and therefore have to be removed and replaced. This may include: rebuilding and replacing the roof, replacing electrical, replacing and painting drywall, replacing flooring materials, replacing interior counters, fixtures, etc. to bring the property back to pre-loss condition.
Why Should You Have Professionals Do Your Fire Damage Restoration
Was your home recently damaged in a fire? You may be searching for DIY fire restoration tips to save a little cash in the recovery process, but the simple fact is this: smoke and fire damage restoration is not a job for amateurs. Here are four reasons why trying to clean up the mess yourself could be problematic.
You Might be Exposed to Hidden Health Hazards
Unfortunately, fire damage don’t end once the flames go out. The smoke and soot left behind are more than just dirty little reminders of the disaster that took place. Exposure to fire-damaged objects and lingering residue could be hazardous to your health.
Soot forms after a fire because plastic, foam, textiles, wood, and other household materials don’t burn cleanly. The soot then contains toxic materials that either didn’t burn completely or were produced as a chemical reaction in the fire’s high heat.
Invisible soot particles floating through the air may contain cancer-causing asbestos fibers, ammonia, tar, formaldehyde, and much more. Walking through your fire-ravaged home could allow chemically-laden soot to get into your eyes and penetrate your skin. If it enters your lungs, you may experience shortness of breath, asthma, and other respiratory issues in the short term. Eventually, it’s possible you could develop bronchitis, have a heart attack, or be diagnosed with cancer.
Exposure to suit in a fire-damaged home is obviously at its highest during the cleanup process. However, unless thorough, adequate cleaning is performed, the health effects of smoke could linger for years. This is why you should leave fire damage restoration to professionals who can employ deep-cleaning techniques to truly restore your home to its pre-fire condition.
You Need Special Equipment
A bottle of degreaser and a dust mask are not nearly enough to adequately clean up fire and smoke damage. After all, you can’t simply wipe soot away. You must deep clean all surfaces to eliminate lingering health threats and remove residual odors. Professional tools – not to mention knowledge of proper cleaning techniques – are at the heart of a thorough, safe fire damage restoration.
Also, be aware that laundering smoke-damaged clothing in your washer could deepen the damage and leave undesired odors in the washing machine. You must pursue special dry-cleaning techniques if you hope to salvage clothing damaged in a fire.
You Could Mistakenly Throw Away Salvageable Goods
It’s easy for the untrained eye to sift through damaged belongings and deem many of them a lost cause. However, with advanced recovery techniques, a fire damage restoration contractor can help minimize your loss. Then, for contaminated items that truly are unrecoverable, proper disposal prevents unnecessary health hazards.
The Recovery Process Could Take Much Longer
Restoring your home back to its pre-fire condition is not a straightforward task. You have belongings to salvage, cleanup to do, and the home’s structure to repair. Then, there are the insurance claims to minimize the fire’s financial impact. The entire process is a headache to attempt yourself.
In fact, your efforts to save money with DIY fire damage restoration could easily backfire if you throw out salvageable belongings and don’t complete insurance claims correctly. The time it takes to perform the cleanup without help could also be detrimental. Relying on a fire damage restoration contractor who’s familiar with every aspect of the disaster recovery process is a much better option.
Fix Your Fire Damage With My Remediator!
Has your home been badly burned by a fire?
In that case, you should first call a trustworthy fire damage restoration company to help with your burnt home cleanup or any fire damage cleanup needed. A reliable restoration company will identify the damages and contamination to provide you with 24/7 emergency cleanups, mold removal, and remediation services. My Remediator is your top choice for credible fire damage cleanup in Florida, USA.
Fire damages are an emergency. A fire damage can cause serious structural damage to your home, which can cost you a lot if not fixed quickly. Don’t try to fix it by yourself, you might be doing more harm to yourself than good. Oftentimes, people watch videos online and try to fix their own fire damages, and failing at it makes the problem bigger.
If you need a quick and prompt solution to your fire damage, contact My Remediator, the best restoration company in Florida, USA.
With years of experience and unmatched service, our restoration company provides a 24-hour service whenever you need it.
At My Remediator, we take pride in providing the top-of-line restoration services we have provided to residents across Florida, USA.
If you are looking for honest, professional restorers with exceptional experience in restoration services, you have come to the right place.