Watching your house burn down to the ground can devastate any homeowner. Besides causing irreparable damage to your possessions, fires can produce toxic smoke, fumes, and soot. For this reason, you should call your fire department immediately to minimize the damages.
While you may feel relieved after they put out the fire, you must remember that your work doesn’t stop there. You must also conduct a prompt soot cleaning and call fire damage restoration to prevent permanent damage to your property. Leaving soot unattended can also cause respiratory issues.
From wearing personal protective gear to calling a fire damage restoration company, here are five tips for cleaning soot from your home.
1. Wear Personal Protective Equipment
Your safety should always come first, especially when handling fire-related damages. Before beginning the clean-up process for your fire-ravaged home, you must check if it’s safe to enter again. One of the protective measures you should also take is to wear the proper clothing.
You can protect your arms and legs from soot damage by wearing a long-sleeve shirt, a pair of long pants, and close-toed shoes. You should also protect your eyes from smoke particles and other debris by wearing protective goggles.
In contrast, the mask will prevent you from inhaling harmful fumes. Moreover, rubber gloves protect your skin from soot damage because your hand’s natural oils can worsen the damage.
2. Vacuum the Loose Particles
You can effectively clean the soot-damaged materials and surfaces by determining the appropriate cleaning methods. Begin by using a vacuum cleaner with a high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filter to remove any loose soot particles because it will ensure that you’re not redistributing the soot into the air.
3. Clean the Floors and Walls
If your home is suffering from soot damage, you can use a mild soap or a mixture of tri-sodium phosphate and chlorine bleach to clean the walls and flooring. That way, you can help restore the area and remove the sooty residue while waiting for a fire damage restoration company to arrive. You can create this chemical solution by combining a gallon of warm water, a cup of chlorine bleach, and four to six tablespoons of trisodium phosphate.
You should remember to clean soot from walls one area at a time. Apply the solution, scrub, start from the bottom and work your way up, then rinse it with warm water.
4. Clean Your Clothes and Other Garments
Nobody wants to wear or look at clothes covered in soot.You can also use this cleaning method to remove soot from your clothes and other garments. Begin by combining bleach and trisodium phosphate with warm water.
The trisodium phosphate will help reduce any foul odors from the soot. On the other hand, if you want something more environmentally friendly, you can mix cold water and a teaspoon of vanilla extract in your washing machine with standard laundry detergent.
5. Seek Professional Help
Besides the flames, the smoke and soot can also cause harm to your house. Remember that while you can handle the smoke and soot damage, there’s no shame in seeking professional help, especially because you can only take so much. You also don’t want to risk damaging your valuables if you don’t clean them correctly.
These fire damage restoration specialists have the right tools and techniques to clean up soot and smoke damage at home safely and effectively. Any reputable fire damage restoration company will also respond quickly to your call. Moreover, they’ll know how to restore or replace affected materials. That way, your home won’t suffer from permanent damage.
Conclusion
Soot can cause collateral damage to your property if you don’t address the issue immediately. Fortunately, you can save your home from permanent damage by following our tips and working with a professional fire damage restoration company.
If you need professional fire damage restoration in Fort Myers, work with DryZone! We’re committed to helping homeowners regain what they’ve lost in flames with our high-quality services. Book us today!