Where to begin the smoke and soot restoration process after a fire damage?
A fire damage in any property always brings significant value losses and financial losses. This situation also disorients people, forcing them to commit rash actions. To get out of this situation with maximum benefit and benefit to yourself, you need to know and perform three steps:
- Hire a certified independent fire restoration firm.
- Assess the damage caused by the fire, smoke and soot.
- Restoration experts after the fire damage.
Peculiarities of Restoration Work
The repair of premises after a fire is the most labor-intensive and requires significant investments of time and money. In addition to the destructive power of fire, property and premises will be affected by solutions used in extinguishing (water and foam) from firefighters. Therefore, like after water damage or a fire, you also need to approach the restoration professionals opinion in order to possibly prevent the property from mold growth.
Work to restore the previous appearance of your property has many general rules:
- The first step is to clean the apartment or entryway of debris, especially burned debris. Carpeted floor coverings, even if not severely damaged, are also taken to the trash. It is almost impossible to get rid of the smell of burning carpeting.
- The next stage is the most labor-intensive. It is necessary to clean the entire surface of the dwelling from the soot and soot that has formed. It is required to work through absolutely everything: the walls, ceilings, floors, window frames.
- In addition to remove water and soot contamination after the firefighter, you should not forget about carcinogens on the surfaces formed from the burning of fire damaged areas. If you intend to restore the property, you should remove and remediate as per the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning & Restoration Certification (IICRC).
After a fire in the apartment, repair should begin by treating all surfaces with any detergent, applied evenly and exceedingly abundantly, and leaving for 10 minutes. The stronger the fire was, the longer it was best to go the solution on the walls. Then, after thoroughly rinsing with water, treat it again with the answer.
It is best if you do such manipulations 3 to 8 times. In between treatments, leave a detergent solution on the surface for several hours. To get rid of the elements of combustion more quickly, you can buy a unique concentrated means designed to remove the effects of fire.
Measure the level of carcinogens in the room after each treatment. Do not stop cleaning until the level has fallen to the optimal tolerance level.
After the complete removal of combustion products, you can begin to repair the apartment after the fire. If the consequences are visible only externally, the room does not need major repairs. First, cover all surfaces with a special primer twice: a layer under the plaster and a layer on top after drying. With the floor, do the same thing — apply the primer on top of the screen.
Replace windows, interior and exterior doors, plumbing. Place all coatings with new ones.
If the finish is not seriously damaged, you may quickly restore the color. For the final (cosmetic) step, mix a cleaning solution for soot reduction with a suitable dye. Finally, you will have to use a tint to restore the finish to its original color.
Fire Wall and Roof Treatment After a Fire Damage
When you complete cleaning after a fire and repairs, you can still smell the specific smell of burning in the apartment for a long time.
Special deodorants that contain aromatic substances that neutralize the smell after a fire may be the solution. However, do not use products that mask the odor. They will only make the problem worse.
If the entryway is damaged by the fire and smoke, the cleaning of debris, soot is the same as the restoration of the apartment.
However, repairing an entryway after a fire or smoke peculiarities. Since metal doors are the most known case for houses, only frames and windows usually need to be replaced in a brick house. The concrete floor won’t get much damage in a fire.
Sooted walls will need to be cleaned of soot and repainted. Most of all, you will have to give attention and effort to the ceiling in the entryway. Using a sharp scraper, remove the whitewash along with carcinogens, soot, and soot contamination.
Remember that the person responsible for the fire pays for the repairs to the entryway. Suppose you or a special force did not find the person responsible for the fire. In that case, the managing company can also do the repair work, at the general decision of the apartment owners, but at the tenants’ expense. The managing company services the entrance, and all the apartment building residents are responsible for its condition.
When to Start Restoration processes on a Fire Damage House
If a fire breaks out in a wooden house, there is a high probability of extreme damage to the house. Before you start repairing, you need to decide whether to dismantle the remains and build a new home associated with high financial costs, or restore the old dwelling.
In this case, it is best not to spare money and order technical and fire expertise. If the experts determine that the load-bearing structures are severely damaged, it will be dangerous to restore such a house. Instead, you will have to tear it down by dismantling a burned-down house. The best solution is to contact a particular company.
For a complete examination, you will need to request a professional restoration firm.
Making repairs after a fire in a wooden house will require maximum effort, time, and finances. Even if it has not had direct contact with the flames, wood is difficult to clean from soot. The porous wood structure allows soot particles to penetrate deep into the layers and perfectly absorb soot.
Here, the owners of brick houses are in a more advantageous position. Brick has good fire resistance. But, in both cases, home repairs after a fire should begin with throwing out the debris and cleaning out the soot and buildup.
Some tricks can help get the fire smell out faster:
- Make a weak solution of bleach lime. Use it to treat the surfaces of the house.
- Pour a solution of soda and ammonia into bowls and place them around the perimeter of the room. Close the house and leave it for a few days.
- A faster way is to pour soda into a deep dish (flask), add 10% ammonia alcohol, and add hydrochloric acid with care. The result will be a compound called ammonium chloride, which will spread around the house in smoke and neutralize all the burning smells. Be sure to ventilate afterward.
- Alternatively, Purchase an Ozonator
- Spread regular charcoal around the rooms. It is an adsorbent, i.e., a substance that absorbs harmful substances.
Safety Comes First
Repair after a fire with your own hands would not be complicated if the fight against smoke and soot is not successful. The main thing is to adhere to some safety rules.
- Use the thickest gloves and shoes with thick, stable soles in the first stages of preparing your home for repairs. It will keep you from getting hurt.
- Protect your respiratory organs and mucous membranes from carbon monoxide and carcinogens by wearing a mask. Use protective equipment.
Major repairs should always begin with replacing all the wiring in the house. It is better and more reliable to contact professionals. It will be much more effective to prevent any hotbeds of fire in a wooden place than to repair and restore them. In the final stage, cover wooden surfaces with fire retardant paint.
With the help of tinting, you can restore the former color of the brick in a brick house. Dilute the dye with a special agent to get the color you need.
Whatever the room where the fire broke out (apartment, house, office), you can always contact a cleaning company to save time and energy in the first cleaning stages.
Fire of any complexity refers to emergencies, and nobody can feel safe here. And here the rule applies: it is better to prevent than to repair. Preventive measures and not neglecting safety measures will protect your home from the consequences of the fire element.
The purpose of the fire examination and when it is conducted:
- The report of the fire technical examination is often the main proof in court to clarify the following questions: who is responsible for the fire, what is its nature (accidental or intentional), and on whose shoulders will fall the compensation for damages.
- These questions are fundamental if the fire happened in an apartment building and the entryway was damaged. All building residents jointly own the entrance, but the management company is responsible for repairing and maintaining it properly. What to do in this case-who will pay for the repair of the common areas? Independent expertise of the apartment fire will be the legal basis for determining the party responsible for eliminating the damage caused by the fire in the stairway.
- Suppose it is found out that the fire happened due to the housing company’s improper performance of their duties, for example, old or improperly installed wiring. In that case, the housing cooperative will repair the fire.
Fire Damage Restoration Expertise Tips
A fire expert evaluation will help to solve the following problems:
- Determine the cause, time, and location of the original seat of the fire.
- Determine the room’s compliance with fire safety regulations.
- Identify the mechanisms contributing to the fire in the room.
- To assess the burned building to determine its suitability for a further operation (demolition of the structure or possibility of restoration).
The expertise after a fire in an apartment is usually assigned by state authorities (court, prosecutor’s office) and conducted in particular institutions. However, you can also turn to an independent expert. The initiator can be any interested person.
For the examination after the apartment fire to be carried out qualitatively and to answer all the questions, it is necessary to provide the following materials to the expert institution:
- The protocols include data from examining the seat of the fire, including photographs, possible diagrams, and drawings.
- Information consists of facts about the weather conditions, the date of the fire, and the time when representatives of the fire department started the firefighting operation.
- There is a description of the burned area: what materials were used in construction and how fire-resistant the structure was.
- The information contains the number, types of light fixtures in the apartment, their location, the length of wires and cables, and the location of the electric meter in the room.
- Data on what signs under what conditions the seat of the fire was discovered, what events preceded the fire, its duration, and consequences
What kind of expertise after a fire should we count on? It can be primary, repeated, or additional. You can also count on a comprehensive or single-person fire appraisal. In complex cases, there may be formed a panel of experts.
Assessing Fire, Smoke and Soot Damage
An appraisal is necessary to recover property from fire damage as a result of a premise fire. A correctly performed damage assessment will help determine the actual cost of repair after a fire.
It is best to assess the fire damaged property in the following cases:
- When the occupants of neighboring apartments cause the fire.
- If the cause of the fire is the action or inaction of the housing management company.
- The guilty party does not agree with the amount of damage indicated by the injured party.
- There is a disagreement about the amount of compensation that the insurance company assessed.
Before you start repairing after a fire, you need to determine the nature of the damage to the entire property — partial or complete. In case of partial damage, the evidence can be photos and videos.
The collection of evidence in the case of the destruction of things will be somewhat complicated. In this case, the court can provide photos from the family archives, testimony of relatives, and a complete list of the property with the following characteristics: make, model, year of manufacture, or date of purchase. There is also no need to prove the presence of things in the living space necessary for living: a table, a bed, chairs, dishes, etc.
The repair estimate after a fire in the apartment is calculated based on an expert assessment of the damage, which is made based on the average market value of similar goods:
- It is possible to familiarize yourself in advance with consumer prices at the time of the fire.
- Ask for an act on the consequences of the fire. A representative of the management company drew up. Always carried out in the presence of the owner of the apartment and approved by them.
- Request an act with information about the fire itself: date, estimated time, and possible cause. To be drawn up by the authorized representatives of the fire brigade.
- Get a document proving the identity of the applicant for damage estimation.
- Obtain documents confirming the ownership of the premises.
- Technical and cadaster passports for the apartment If these documents were destroyed, it is possible to restore them. The term for making a duplicate is one month. As a last resort, you can provide a special certificate of registration or residence registration.
- As soon as you have applied for an independent examination, it is necessary to notify the guilty person. It is desirable to do this immediately, but the law provides a deadline of 3 days before the scheduled date of the examination.
The specialist carries out the work to evaluate a burned property in several stages:
- They agree with an interested person Study of submitted documents.
- They visit the place of fire damaged property and examine, draw up a scheme, The expert also takes the necessary photos of the damaged areas.
- Furthermore, they draw scopes up a conclusion in 2 copies.
When contacting an independent expert company, be sure to draw up a contract for services. You will have to pay for the services of an appraiser. However, if the court grants the claim for damages, the cost of the expertise will compensate the guilty party after receiving the reports.
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