What Are the Necessary Tools to Clean Up After a Fire?

6/8/2020 (Permalink)

Contact SERVPRO for fire damage restoration services.

Fire Restoration is Best Left to Professionals, So Call SERVPRO to Address the Damage to Your Manhasset Home

There are countless reasons to call in the help of trained restoration technicians after a fire in your Manhasset home. For example, smoke and soot bring on foul odors that linger past the fire-loss zone and call for specialized techniques to rid your interior of them. Additionally, the only way you can ensure you salvage the most materials and belongings is by having specialized cleaning methods and the industry's best products today. SERVPRO comes to each fire restoration job, ready to work with all of the latest advancements in the field. 

How Do My Furnishings, Walls, and Ceilings Get Cleaned?

When you call us for help with fire restoration in Manhasset, we arrive with our Green Fleet loaded with all of the equipment and proper cleaning agents to handle the job. To determine the best measures for cleaning your interior, we test surfaces covered in smoke residue. This allows us to match the right cleaning techniques and products for optimum results. 

Anytime a homeowner tries to handle fire-loss with consumer cleaning tools and DIY methods, they run the risk of worsening the damage. Some of the standard, professional-grade equipment that we bring to each fire damage project includes:

•   Personal protection equipment (PPE), which protects the crew from harmful irritants, such as soot
•   Durable wet-sponges best for working on the removal of wet smoke residue
•   Dry-sponges that work to lift away any dry smoke residue on surfaces easily
•   Moisture detection tools to help find hidden moisture pockets from the water used to extinguish the flames
•   Air scrubber equipment that helps capture the soot particles from the air
•   EPA-registered solvents and cleaning solutions to fight smoke odors

What Sets SERVPRO Apart from the Rest?

Once you choose us for your fire damage restoration needs, we send out a team to begin assessing your interior. The crew chief examines each area and records each detail, which allows for the formulation of a tailored plan of action. We use research-based planning to help facilitate the mitigation and remediation steps. Several areas that we address when putting a plan into place include:

•   Integrity and safety of any structural materials
•   Whether pack-out services are required
•   The level of damage within the loss zone, including potential materials that must get treated using controlled demolition methods
•   Any residual moisture from water or chemicals used to douse the flames
•   What drying or dehumidification equipment, if any and how many, is needed 
•   What odor-control equipment will work best on the project

What are Pack-Out Services?

There are times when items can be relocated to another room of the home for cleaning, or we will send them to our facility for detailed cleaning. We may also suggest a partial move out, where only some of your contents get moved at any given time. Whatever we decide is best, all of your belongings get logged for your records and to your insurance provider to go with your claim. 

Of course, there will be items that can be cleaned on-site, which our technicians will address and handle with care. 

What is Done to Address Foul Odors?

A common complaint after a house fire is the strong smell of smoke and charred materials. Without proper techniques, the smoke remains a constant reminder even after other traces of the fire get removed. Handling smoke odors is something that our IICRC-certified technicians at SERVPRO are trained to do. We take measures to contain the fire-loss zone so that mitigation can begin, which includes tarping off the area and covering vents. This helps to keep soot and smoke from getting tracked throughout the home and limit particulates in the air. Whenever soot and smoke residue get into the ducts of your HVAC system, these foul odors can spread throughout each room in your home.

Some of the advanced technology that we bring with us to help battle smoke odors includes:

•   Sealants for walls and ductwork that halt odor transmission from soot that has become embedded
•   Powerful deodorizing agents
•   Hydroxyl generators with UV light technology that help to eliminate odors safely
•   Thermal foggers that use chemicals to bind with odor molecules for easy removal.

What Items are a Total Loss?

As mentioned with our pack-out services, we take the time to catalog all items that are handled. Our Contents Claim Inventory Service (CCIS), reports the condition of each item as well as anything that has been discarded. What this service does is establish a chain of custody, which then helps to give you added peace of mind while also helping to expedite your insurance claim. Any items deemed unsalvageable are adequately disposed of according to local guidelines.

To have a team deployed to your home for fire restoration services, call SERVPRO of Great Neck/Port Washington at (516) 767-9600. We are here to make sure that your interior is "Like it never even happened."