What Obstacles Exist with Cleaning Up After a Fire in My St. Petersburg Home?

6/25/2020 (Permalink)

We’re Faster to Any Size Disaster.

Fire loss recovery can be time-consuming and involved, but our SERVPRO professionals have strategies and experience that make the process more efficient. 

Cleaning is one of the vital elements of any loss recovery for St. Petersburg homes. After fire losses, especially, the work that goes into premier cleaning and recovery can make a substantial difference in the final product that we present to our customers. In some regards, the cleaning effort that takes place after mitigation is one of the most vital steps in making fire losses "Like it never even happened."

Before thorough cleaning for the final stages of restoration can begin, other elements of fire damage in your St. Petersburg property must get addressed and resolved. Identifying these potential problems is one of the first steps. To accomplish this task, our management team performs a job scoping along with the customer when it is safe to do so. We include the property owner because they can better identify the most pressing damages that have developed, situations that existed before the fire and divulge their priorities for the restoration to come.

How Can Job Scoping Help to Make Cleaning More Efficient? 

An extensive evaluation of the damaged home before our full team of SERVPRO professionals arrive can be beneficial. With so many stages of restoration, including even the need for temporary construction solutions like board up and tarping following extinguishing, the more that our technicians know about the loss site, the better. Whether the property needs reconstruction and emergency services or not, job scoping can begin around this same time, helping to identify:

• The extent of the damage
• Materials and contents affected by the fire
• Areas in need of deodorization, cleaning, and water recovery
• Damaged structural elements that require replacement
• Appropriate tools and personnel needed for complete restoration

What Effective Practices Can Clean Fire Damage? 

Much like nearly all of the aspects of the professional restoration services that we provide, there is usually a more profound scientific process at work. Every approach of cleaning surfaces, contents, and materials all must adhere to the known elements of cleaning after a fire loss. Because there are so many different residues and areas that need to be cleaned after a fire loss, each of these elements vary from one cleaning approach to the next. These include:

• Temperature – Higher temperatures might not always be the best for cleaning. With varying approaches, our technicians carefully determine ideal conditions to promote the desired chemical reactions.
• Agitation – Many agitative practices can loosen and free packed soiling from the surface to more easily wipe it away or clean it. These include brushing, vacuuming, dusting, pressurized air, and more.
• Chemical Action – Depending on the affected surface and the type of damaging substance, there are varying results that our team can hope to achieve. We have potent cleaning products to produce these desired effects, whether it is dissolving, emulsifying, bleaching, or oxidizing.
• Time – Time is one of the most valuable elements to appropriate cleaning. Our education of fire loss recovery can ensure that chemical agents work for the appropriate length of time before getting removed. 

What Are the Best Tools for Removing Harsh Smoke Odors? 

Much like surface cleaning, odors can present an equally formidable challenge for even our experienced restoration professionals. With these loss effects, our responding technicians must address both the environmental scents circulating throughout the house as well as trapped odors in porous surfaces like the walls, flooring, and various fabrics. While there are dozens of deodorizing tools that our team can use to neutralize smoke and burning scents, some of the most popular and reliable of these approaches include:

• Thermal foggers
• ULV foggers 
• Ozone generators
• Hydroxyl machines 
• Air scrubbers 

Is Controlled Demolition a Better Option? 

Many people think that a home needing reconstruction and repair means that restoration costs are astronomical. In many situations, however, calculated reconstruction following carefully completed controlled demolition can be a cost-effective solution. It can be easier to remove and discard damaged materials like cabinets, flooring, and wall systems in some situations than to attempt to take considerable time to deodorize, clean, and dry them. 

Cleaning up your fire-damaged home is a substantial undertaking that must begin as soon as we get notified of a disaster. From debris removal when our technicians arrive to post-construction cleanup, our SERVPRO of NE St. Petersburg team can help you through nearly every phase of post-fire recovery. Give us a call anytime at (727) 522-0000.