Fire Damage Repair

Just the thought of a fire makes me cringe. I have never suffered through any kind of fire damage except for grease fires in a pan on the stove or drippings from my charcoal grill. I did have one shop vacuum motor burn without any visible fire but when it went it created a great deal of black smoke and a noxious pungent odor that lingered for days even though we aired out the area with open windows and doors with screens in place.

In our old house in Indiana due to the proximity of a creek and being in the downhill side of our neighborhood we were the victim of six different flooding situations that were completely beyond our control. Unknown to us, we were also the victims of a beaver damn a few hundred yards downstream of us on our creek. The water table was less than fifty feet down so it never took a great deal of rain for the ground to become saturated and create issues with our sump wells.

On one occasion we were away for Labor Day Weekend and our area was hit with eight inches of rain over thirty six hours. This caused the creek to rise and become over fifty feet wide from its original width of less than ten feet. Before the creek crested the level over ran our sump outlet pipe and compounding the situation the main sump pump failed.

Because we were aware of the rain situation, we decided to come home early and were actually not able to turn in our road due to the flooding of the bridge near our street. Runoff from local fields (fertilized by manure) and local dairy farms made the flood waters especially gross. Needless to say once the flooding had subsided and we had to make a claim for the water damage we researched a variety of cleaning companies and found that almost all of the ones that had high ratings for water damage cleaning and restoration also offered fire damage repair services as well.

Haste is necessary for proper fire damage repair. In addition to smoke and actual burn damage, there will be water damage from the firefighters attempting to douse the blaze, because the vast majority of items in a home are made of synthetic materials. Complex chemical reactions occur when synthetic materials burn. After a few days these items go from cleanable to a total loss.

ServiceMaster claims they can remove soot from items that can be easily damaged chemically like aluminum, chrome and brass (prone to pitting), tile, marble and porcelain. A little known aspect to fire damage repair is the complimentary water damage repair. When a fire is put out by water not only does the fire damage need addressed any items soaked by the water need taken care of as well. With any fire situation that also involves water you have the chance of mold growing.

Too many people are susceptible to air born contaminants like mold spores. More and more people are increasingly allergic to things that would not have bothered people a generation ago. Increased exposure to chemicals in our day to day lives is believed to have contributed to the increase in respiratory problems in all age groups but especially young children and the elderly. If you have any family members in these categories especially, the prospect or any chance of mold in your home should be of immediate concern.

Mold can begin growing in as little as forty eight hours, and needs a moist environment and something to feed off of. The most common food source for mold in the home is cellulose which is found in abundance in the wood and drywall in your home. If any of this gets wet when your fire is put out you will need to take steps to get it dry as soon as possible. Do you know what cleaning fire damage is all about?

Mold on relatively hard surfaces can be treated with regular household cleaners and bleach to kill any leftover spores. If the mold is growing on wood, fabric or drywall if the mold is not treated quickly before it spreads too far the only way to repair this kind of problem is to replace the affected material with new. If you cannot visually find mold after a fire damage repair, but you detect an unpleasant musty odor, you can be sure you have mold somewhere. If water got behind your drywall and was not addressed you may have mold growing in your insulation.