How Can Professional Fire Damage Repair Services Restore Your Property Efficiently?
Fire damage always leaves a devastating impact on any kind of property. Only a team of highly trained professionals can rectify that damage. But how do they restore properties? It’s a multi-step process with several intricacies. In this post, we’ll highlight the steps fire damage repair services implement to restore properties. We’ll also mention some factors to select the right fire damage repair service. Let’s dive right into it.
Steps Professional Take To Restore Fire Damage
Just like any other property restoration, fire damage restoration is also a step-by-step process. Everything is done to achieve the desired results. Let’s discuss these steps in detail.
- Thorough Inspection & Examination
The first step any professional fire damage repair team takes is inspection. Individuals on the team scatter around the property and examine every affected area with a keen eye. Every single thing is accounted for with the extent of damage.
Experts create an extensive report detailing every aspect of fire damage restoration. This report includes possible causes of fire, spread of fire damage, damaged items, and more.
Why is this report essential?
There are two reasons why such reporting is important. First, your insurance claim. A third-party reporting is required to file your insurance claim against fire damage. Second, it gives a clear picture to you and your service provider.
This enables them to implement necessary solutions to restore the original condition of your property. Without such a report, it is like shooting an arrow in the dark. You can never get the desired result without a solid starting point.
How long does it take to complete a fire damage inspection?
The duration of the inspection entirely depends on the size of your property. It takes roughly 2-6 hours to complete the inspection process. This is mainly because the service provider has to check for plumbing, electrical connections, structural damage, and more.
Furthermore, they also have to check the adjacent areas for possible damage. In certain situations, the damage can reach other areas that might look fine on the surface.
- Water Damage Prevention
When it comes to fire damage, water damage cannot be overlooked. The fire prevention efforts of firefighters leave your property in a soaked state. Before anything can be done, your fire damage restoration contractor has to extract the water.
Once the water is removed, the next step is to dry the property. Some contractors use specialized dehumidifiers while some prefer the natural method. It is essential to dry the property because it significantly makes the restoration process easier and more effective.
How long does it take to dry the property after fire damage?
On average, the entire drying process takes between 24-96 hours. This duration can increase based on the extent of damage. A single room can be potentially dried in a day while multiple rooms can take up to 72 hours.
On top of that, the extent of water damage can also increase the duration. Surface-level drying is faster. Whereas permeated floors and walls may take significantly longer to dry out.
Why is it important to tackle water damage beforehand?
Water damage can lead to mold growth on your property. Without proper prevention steps, this can lead to serious health risks and expensive remediation.
1. Salvage Belongings
The first crucial step towards fire damage restoration is salvaging your property components. Not every aspect of your property is equally damaged by fire. While some components are entirely damaged, some only get surface-level damage.
A professional can easily spot your belongings that can be salvaged. This includes your furniture, wearables, flooring, walls, appliances, and more. Once they determine the condition of your belongings, a team relocates to a safe location.
2. Cleaning Impacted Areas
This is where things get tricky. Cleaning the aftermath of a fire is nothing short of complex. Professionals have to deal with 4 kinds of damage at once. These damage types are water, fire, smoke, and soot.
- Water damage requires the removal of impacted structural components. This includes flooring, wallpapers, and more. Your contractor can either salvage or discard these components on their condition.
- Fire damage includes the clean-up of charred and burnt property components. Your contractor will remove and clean the area of every burnt belonging from your property. They will thoroughly sanitize the area as well.
- Smoke and soot damage are the same in terms of cleanup and potential health hazards. Soot is a byproduct of smoke accumulation. It can stick to walls, ceilings, furniture, and more.
How to get fire damage smoke smell out of the house?
Your contractor will sanitize and spray your home with a deodorizer. This will remove any lingering smoke odors.
What compounds do professionals use for cleanup?
For fire damage cleanup, experts use a combination of 4 different substances. Blech (sodium hypochlorite), hydrogen peroxide, and chlorine dioxide are used in liquid form. Whereas ozone is used as a gaseous cleaner in certain situations.
All these cleaning agents are approved by the FDA but only for fire damage cleanup.
- Repairs & Replacements
This is arguably the most time-consuming step of the process. Repairs and replacements of your property can take several days or even weeks. It depends on whether your property is residential or commercial.
What is the overall exterior house fire damage repair cost?
The costs of exterior fire damage for residential properties vary based on the scope. The damage might only be on the surface or it might have penetrated past the substrate.
On average, the costs of such repairs can range between $800 to $6500. This is mainly because your contractor might have to replace some severely damaged components.
Is it necessary to replace every damaged component?
Actually, no. As long as a component doesn’t impose a structural threat, you can get it repaired. However, even the slightest damage to a structural component should be immediately replaced.
The last step of fire damage restoration is the renovation of your affected area. You can either choose to go for the old look or choose a new theme. The renovation includes repainting, plumbing fixture installation, electrical socket replacements, and more.
It is important to note that you have the choice to avail of renovation services from a fire damage restoration company. You can simply hire them up till the repair and replacement step.
This enables you to customize your newly restored property. On top of that, renovation from a separate company can even save you a good chunk of money.
Tips to Select The Right Fire Damage Restoration Company
Here are some tips you should keep in mind while selecting a fire damage restoration company. Let’s check them out.
- Prompt response. A fire damage restoration company should always provide a quick response to your needs.
- Sufficient squad members. Fire damage restoration isn’t a one-man job. It takes an entire team. Your choice of company should have multiple personnel on their team.
- Professional tools. Restoration of fire damage is done by specialized tools. Your contractor should have all the updated tools to perform the restoration.
- Swift planning and execution. Your contractor should get on with planning of restoration and execute each step with professional precision.
- Cost-effective solutions. Even though fire damage restoration is costly, your contractor should offer you multiple options to provide comfort in this state of discord.
Conclusion:
With this, we cross the finish line of our post on the steps professional services take for fire damage restoration. When it comes to fire, the damage is almost always extensive. Without the required expertise, it is nearly impossible to do a complete restoration. It is a multi-step process that requires decades of hands-on experience.
We hope this information proves to be highly beneficial for you. Let us know if you ever had to deal with fire damage in your home.
