Fire Restoration Services

If you have been the victim of fire damage in any way with your possessions you know the process to restore things to their original condition requires the use of fire restoration services. If you have homeowners insurance, when you make your initial claim your adjuster will give you a contact for fire restoration services.

You are under no obligation to use that company as under most state laws, you have freedom of choice when it comes to having you insurance claim taken care of. The law applies to any insurance repair or replacement when it comes to cars, boats, your home or any possessions covered by that particular insurance policy.

There are many places you can find companies that offer fire restoration services. Most of the larger cleaning companies offer both water and fire damage restoration services. To offer that kind of service a cleaning company would have to have access to carpet cleaning, deodorizing and odor neutralization products.

If most of the damage is from smoke or water in putting the fire out, the cleaning company providing the fire restoration services will probably do the vast majority of the work itself. If you have a great deal of carpet, drywall, house or furnishings burned by the fire, what happens next will depend on the insurance adjuster and your coverage.

If your coverage offers replacement coverage, many times the adjuster will authorize replacement over restoration based on how much damage the item has. If the items have small amounts of charring they will many times authorize restoration and replace everything else. If the item has a great deal of sentimental or monetary value, restoration is usually indicated.

Serv-Pro and Service Master along with Stanley Steemer are national franchise chains that offer a wide range of water and fire restoration services. The offer online estimate capability for their regular cleaning services, but will need to come out to visually inspect everything in person for accurate estimates. Due to the unique nature of smoke and how it tries to escape, migrating to the cooler and upper levels of a structure, through plumbing systems using the holes to go from floor to floor.

The type of smoke has a hand in whether and item can be restored versus having to be replaced. There are several types of smoke like wet smoke (low heat from smoldering fires, sticky and usually accompanied by a strong odor), dry smoke (fast burning, high temperature), protein (mostly invisible, but discolors paint and finishes, fuel oil or plastic based smoke, and fire extinguisher residue. The fire restoration company will come out and test for the type of smoke involved in various areas to eliminate unnecessary replacements to keep your overall claim down.

If you have ever purchased furniture or items that had been recovered from a fire damaged or a smoker’s home, you may want to also procure a company that provides fire restoration services. The process for items you have versus those that are in a home damaged by fire is the same. The cleaning company will test for the type of smoke, determine if restoration is possible, and if so recommend the type of restoration needed. Check our fire damage repair hub to find out more information.

If you want to tackle restoring the item yourself you can use common household cleaners like bleach and ammonia. You will need to use two cups of ammonia (non scented) to two and a half gallons of water and make sure you rinse your cleaning cloth in a separate container. You can also try bleach and water solution to cut the soot. You will want to apply a sealant to the wood surface once you are done to your satisfaction as these cleaners will open any finish no mater if it is a satin or gloss one.

We used over twenty applications of both bleach and ammonia water along with Pledge to eliminate the petroleum burn smell. Even six months after cleaning the fire damage from the furniture if you put you nose close to the surface you can detect the smoke smell. Eventually we will probably contact a professional fire restoration service to completely eliminate the smoke smell. Luckily, since we have already done the majority of the work, the smell elimination should be relatively inexpensive.