The 5 Steps of Fire Damage Restoration

4/4/2017 (Permalink)

Step One: Emergency Contact

The best fire damage restoration companies offer emergency services meaning that they are able to come out quickly when contacted and provide immediate relief for your property. This is a very important feature and you should always look for companies that offer this when trying to find fire damage restoration.

Why do you need immediate service before you start the fire damage restoration process? Of course it’s actually the job of the emergency services and fire department to put out the fires. However, you may still need fire damage restoration services very quickly in order to prevent damage from spreading through your property.

Say a fire burns a hole in your roof for instance. This could then lead to a situation where you have rain coming in through your ceiling and ruining your property more – the longer you leave this the more the extent of the damage is going to increase and thus you need to get immediate emergency services whenever possible rather than waiting for the problem to get more severe.

Step Two: Assessment

The next thing that a fire damage restoration company will do in the fire damage restoration process is to assess the extent of the damage in your property. This will usually involve looking at how far the fire, the smoke and the soot have traveled as well as seeing how badly affected your walls and furniture are.

This is an important first step as it is only by understanding the extent of the damage that the company will be able to come up with a plan of action and to give you an accurate quote for how much it should cost and an accurate estimate of how long it will take.

Step Three: Tarp and Sealing Services

Once the fire damage restoration begins in earnest, the main priority will always be to prevent damage from getting worse. For instance then, if you have a leak thanks to a hole burned in your roof or due to a hole in your wall, then your fire damage restoration company will start by addressing that.

Likewise, fire damage restoration can also often go hand in hand with water damage restoration. This can be necessary for instance if the fire has led to a burst pipe or water tank. In these cases fire damage restoration services will act quickly to stop the source of the water before it spreads through more of your building and causes more damage.

Step Four: Clean Up

Next the fire damage restoration service will begin the clean-up part of the fire damage restoration process whereby they will clean away smoke, dust and soot from your surfaces. After a fire often you will find that your property looks dark, stained and charred. The first job of your fire damage restoration company will be to clean up all this damage and get your property at least looking as normal as possible.

This is also when water damage restoration will begin properly. Here any standing pools of water will be removed using submersible pumps and the areas will then be dried and sanitized. Water damage can also cause health problems owing to contamination in the water, so sanitization is particularly important here.

During this fire damage restoration process, companies will also ensure to remove any odors that can linger after smoke has been in the room. This might involve carpet cleaning as well and will often need to address adjacent rooms as well as those directly affected by fire damage.

Finally, the clean-up part of the fire damage restoration process will also involve the removal and disposal of items that are too badly damaged to be repairable. If you have furniture for instance that has absorbed a lot of contaminated water, or if you have carpet that has been badly burned… in these cases often the best case scenario is just to throw these things out and to replace them with new items. Fire damage restoration companies handle this for you so that you don’t have to.

Step Five: Repair and Renovation

The next stage is to begin actually restoring furniture and repairing the damage caused by fire. For instance, if cabinets have been destroyed by fire, then fire damage restoration will involve either repairing those cabinets or replacing them with new ones. Carpets can likewise be installed anew and walls can be repainted and wallpaper can be put back up.

The idea of this stage is to get your property looking as good as new so that you can go back to normal. However, the very best fire damage restoration companies will go one step further than this. That’s because they will not only offer restoration but also renovation. These companies can then repair your property and actually leave it looking better than it did at the start. This can be something of a silver lining – if you’re stressed and upset because your furniture has been ruined, then fire damage restoration can turn this into an opportunity to renovate your property and to enjoy having a completely new redesign.

Step Six: Consultation

Following the completion of your fire damage restoration services, you may find that the company that provided them offers you some ‘debriefing’ and consultation on how to prevent future fires. Sometimes, it may be the case that the fire damage was avoidable and in this case they can offer some design advice for your rooms or help you to find the best smoke detectors and other means for being alerted to fires early.

Fire Damage or smoke loss in your home or business? Contact SERVPRO of Oldham/Shelby/Trimble/Henry/Carroll/Spencer to speak to a Mitigation Specialist today. 502.241.6861