Fire wreaks all kinds of havoc on property. Think about it. The flames consume your property and furnishings, the smoke leaves hazardous toxins, and accompanying water damage destroys materials too.
These are just some of the reasons why turning to a reputable restoration company for the fire restoration process is your best option. The certified experts know how to get your damaged property clean, repaired, and rebuilt back to pre-loss conditions.
Although every fire restoration process is different and will need a customized plan of action from a professional crew, these are some steps in the fire damage restoration process that you can expect.
Fire Damage Restoration Steps:
1. Inspection
- Assess: First, our crew will arrive at the scene and take in all the details. This will help them customize a plan of action for your property. They will see how far the fire, smoke, and soot have affected your walls and furniture.
A thorough assessment will explore the need for possible structural repairs, find any lurking mold issues, and help with planning your costs and insurance claims.
Fire damage restoration often goes hand-in-hand with water damage restoration, thanks to the firefighting efforts or if the fire has led to a burst pipe.
- Isolate: An inspection of foundations and structures needs to take place. If need be, the crew will need to isolate any unsafe areas and cover any parts of the property that may need to be protected from the weather.
2. Cleanup
- Remove Water: It’s essential to remove water as quickly as possible, as standing water can cause further damage to take place. We will use specialized equipment to extract the water from all affected areas.
It’s important to take care of this as soon as possible to prevent mold from potentially forming.
After the water is removed, we can place fans and dehumidifiers to dry out the structure and remove moisture from the air.
- Soot and Smoke: Using professional equipment, the team will clean soot from all surfaces and salvageable items.
Air scrubbers will be used to remove the smoke odor, and carpets cleaned to get rid of any lingering odors. At this point, you should be deciding whether to toss out any upholstered furniture that isn’t expensive to replace, as it might cost more to try to clean them.
- Clean and Sanitize: Lastly, the property and furnishings will be cleaned and sanitized. This is particularly necessary if any contaminated water was present, as this water can cause health problems.
The staining that happens during a fire usually goes beyond the surface. Only a deep scrub, sanding, and refinishing will get rid of the smoke.
At this point, our crew will also take away all unsalvageable materials.
3. Restoration
- Repair: Once the property is cleaned, it’s down to the hard work – the restoration and repair of your property and furniture.
For the priceless pieces, family heirlooms, and furniture that are hard or impossible to replace, restoration is a careful process.
Fire often creates bubbling and blistering of the wall and ceiling paint; this must be scraped and repainted carefully.
When it comes to wood surfaces damaged by fire, soot, or smoke, repair options will fall into two categories: For unfinished wood, you could try to apply a sealant over it to mask or trap the odor, but there’s no guarantee that will work.
For finished wood, there is a much better success rate of repair and full restoration. The surface that protected the wood gets stripped, sanded, and refinished.
- Renovation: Our crew is skilled in reconstruction and can perform drywall replacement, painting, carpet or floorboard removal and installation, repair and installation of new cupboards, etc.
We can also carry out remodeling and renovation if necessary. Experienced contractors will know how to get the most value out of the restoration process, even if that means throwing away and rebuilding a large portion of it.
Don’t waste any time. Call the professionals if you have suffered fire damage. The quicker we act, the more affordable the fire restoration process will be in the long run.
Fire Damage Restoration Consultation
As you can see, the fire damage restoration process is more than just cleaning and repairing places that fire has touched. You have to take into account how fire transforms the foundation of the property as well as the contents within.
Find a company that provides you with all the tools and options that you need to get your property back to its original state.
At Blackmon Mooring & BMS CAT, we take care of the fire restoration procedure beyond what can be seen at a glance.
If you ever face fire damage, we have locations throughout the nation that allow us to mobilize crews and equipment quickly. Call our 24-hour call center at 877-899-0676.