Pre-cleaning of Soot Deposits Increases the Success of Subsequent Cleaning Efforts in Olean Residences

4/7/2022 (Permalink)

SERVPRO has the right techniques to kick fire and soot right out of your Olean home.

Knowing What Needs to be Done For Your Olean Fire Damage.

Cleaning twice is not a regular habit for most homeowners in Olean. For SERVPRO technicians, many situations warrant this approach. Pre-cleaning, instead of increasing the amount of time involved in restoring your property, can decrease the period we must work on your home. 

Inside an Olean residence with smoke and soot damage, pre-cleaning can significantly increase the effectiveness of general cleaning methods. Removing the bulk of soils like soot can help improve the power of cleansers while decreasing the amount of soiling that needs removing. 

For example, some drier, powdery soot types create a weak static electricity charge when adhering to certain painted surfaces, including walls and ceilings. Direct cleaning with a sponge takes longer because of the static electricity. Pre-cleaning by vacuuming the dry soot away from the surface makes the dry sponge we use later much more effective at cleaning the walls. 

When we pre-clean by vacuuming soot from chrome and other metals, carpets, and other items, staining and corrosion decrease noticeably. Pre-cleaning Formica, marble, and fiberglass surfaces with a dry cleaning sponge keep cross-contamination involving soot and oily residues from the smoke to a minimum. We often do this in areas of the home our customer wishes to occupy while we restore another area with extensive fire or heavier smoke and soot damage.

Agitating soot to fall away from the surface of furniture, drapes, or other things helps with the overall cleaning process. SERVPRO uses two different methods to pre-clean items. These are compressed air and brushing. For more delicate items, we use compressed air to force dry soot out of small motors and other tiny spaces. Brushing works well for textured surfaces like brick and stucco walls. 

Pre-cleaning the surfaces of soot and oils can reveal bubbling and other damage that might have gone unnoticed until later. Knowing about such damage helps us in the restoration process. 

We want to make your home "Like it never even happened." Knowing what needs replacing and what items should respond well to cleaning helps our building and reconstruction crew provide excellent services. 

Replacing only those items with damage, as well as knowing as early as possible about these items, helps keep total recovery costs low and reasonable for our customers. Eliminating delays caused by unexpected supply and material needs keeps us on schedule; it reduces the time your family remains inconvenienced.

SERVPRO of Jamestown / Olean provides specialized services tailored to the homeowners' needs across Lakewood and Falconer. Call us at (716) 338-4901 for a swift response after fire, smoke, or soot affects your property.