Tips For Cleaning Up Soot
Cleaning up after a fire is a hard job and requires some specific knowledge. Your valued possessions can be saved by taking prompt and proper actions in the clean up process. Damage that is more extensive should be left to the professionals. Here are some tips that will help in your approach to clean soot after a fire.
These tips are taken from the experience of respected restoration professionals.
Soot covered objects should not be rinsed in water.
The objects that you are cleaning should not be handled.
Start as soon after the fire as you can. The longer soot is allowed to sit on a surface the more damage it will do.
It’s a good idea to put on some rubber gloves to avoid skin irritation.
Avoid wiping the soot and ash-covered surfaces with a cloth. Doing so will simply embed the soot into the object making it even more difficult to clean.
Remove the soot and ash with a vacuum that has been set on the lowest setting. This will ensure the ash and residue is not unduly displaced. Don’t let the nozzle of the vacuum touch the surface that is being cleaned.
Following vacuuming it may be necessary to clean the object using a soot sponge which are made to be used dry, not wet. To use them you lay the sponge on the surface, press gently and then lift directly off. You don’t rub the surface with these sponges.
If the soot and ash has become wet from the process of putting out the fire do not touch the objects as you are likely to only cause further damage. For these instances simply ring a fire damage restoration professional.
This is a merely a start in the sometimes daunting task of undergoing a complete fire damage restoration.