Trying to Clean up fire damage yourself

11/18/2019 (Permalink)

walking into the fire

Cleaning up after a fire in your home is not an easy task.  However there are people who want to try and tackle this job on there own.  Here at SERVPRO of Western O'Fallon /Wentzville all of our techs are highly trained in this.  Here are some pointers that they have for you do it yourselfers.

With any fire you are going to have a layer of soot on your walls.  You will want to get as much of this dusted off before attempting to clean it with detergent and bleach.  this will be greasy.  if you decide to repaint after cleaning be sure that the walls are free of all soot and that they are 100% dry.

Until your house is clean limit your activity in the house.  You do not want to embed the soot into your carpet and furniture.  You will want to have the air ducts cleaned and place a cloth over the vents.

Get rid of all water damaged items in your home.  Firefighters are great and we are so gratefull that we have them to put out the fires however that was accomplished with water.  and water can cause mold.  open all your doors and windows and air out your home.

You will want to pull out all the carpet and get the flooring cleaned very well.

Avoid smearing the soot and smoke into your clothing.  This will happen if you simply throw it into the washer.  You will need to soak all clothing.  SERVPRO of Western O'Fallon/ Wentzville can help you.  If you have any questions about how to do this call us at 636-856-6202

It is also very important to soak your dishes and clean each and every one of them.