How To Clean Severe Fire & Smoke Damage

Do you have a fire damaged house and have no idea how and where to start cleaning?

We will show you how we do it, but first you must understand....

It is important to call a professional restorer to do the job otherwise you may be wasting your time and causing more damage to your property. Also It may be unsafe for you to do it yourself, especially if it is severe fire damage like the property below. Visit the clean trust website to find your local professional restorer. 

Ok thats out of the way, this is how we do it:

Let me use an example. We completed this job this week, and the owner was extemely happy with the job.

These are before and after pictures of a fire damage property we cleaned out.

The first step was to remove all the damaged contents and clean the walls as well as remove the non-recoverable plasterboard (dry wall) on the ceiling.

Here is the cleaning of the ceiling in progress. We generally use a dry chem sponge (pictured right) to clean the soot from the ceilings. Ceilings are more porous than walls, so it can stain if cleaned with water. We purchase our chem sponges from Prochem Australia.

Walls (see picture below) are generally cleaned with a high alkaline cleaner such as Prochem Renovate also purchased from Prochem Australia. Recoverable plaster walls will be bleed sealed and repainted after they have been cleaned.

Here is the cleaning of the bathroom in progess:

Cleaning of the soot from the tiles is usually completed using a high pressure hot water extraction machine. These days, more restoration companies use a process called dry ice blasting to clean bathrooms. In this case we applied the chemical, scrubbed the tiles and used a a Prochem Legend machine high pressure water and extraction to finish the cleaning.

It some cases it can be impossible to remove the smoke odour from ceiling insulation. So we removed all insulation from the property.

This is a before and after picture of a garage which was the source of the fire. Notice how we have completely stripped out non-recoverable building components.

The work remaining involves work carried out by trades including builders, plasterers, and painters. Which is work best left to the professionals.

In future we will explore the different technologies used in removing odour from properties as well as how to packout and clean the affected contents from the property. 

Further Reading:
Removing Odour from Clothing - http://extension.missouri.edu/p/GH145
Handling Smoke Damage after a Fire - http://disaster.ifas.ufl.edu/PDFS/CHAP13/D13-17.PDF 

More Before and After Pictures

Victoria Bushfires (Fire Damage Restoration)

It has been a while since the kinglake bushfire, but I have finally put up some photos of some of the volunteers and the work they did to help rebuild the community.

Hermie Moir at the front of the establishment of the Global Care headquarters. The Global Care charity was the charity with the most presence during the cleanup of the bushires Victoria.

It was a honour to be involved in the cleanup team. Many thanks to Russel Wright from global care for helping out victims from the bush fires.

Ozone Machine / Generator we used in the Kinglake community hall to remove the smoke smell from the property. We use a dri-eaz brand ozone generator.

A picture of a mobilised vehicle for disaster response for cleaning up after bush fires.

Picture of the devastating bushfire from black Saturday

Warren Cleaning Community hall from smoke damage at kinglake Victoria bush fires

Christian Klien drives into Kinglake with his Formula One BMW Sauber.

There are more images to come.

If you would like Fire Cleaning or Smoke Cleaning Brisbane services please call New Life Restoration on 1300 356 633

Fire & Smoke Restoration Inspections

Fire Damage Inspections

Fire Restoration inspection is the first step in restoring a smoke damaged property.

Basically if we receive a call for cleaning of smoke damage, Warren or phill can come to the property and advise on what items are replaceable and which smoke damaged items can be restored after a fire. Services include

• Cleaning of smoke on fabrics and linen
• Cleaning of smoke residue on walls
• Cleaning after fires involving oil and plastics

If you have smoke & soot damage in your property please give us a call anytime 24/7 and we can inspect the damage for you.

If you do decide to use us to clean up the smoke damage we can waive the initial fire damage inspection fee*

Here are some before and after photos of a cleanup we have completed in Brisbane:

Quick reference links
fire damage gold coast, Fire damage sunshine coast, fire restoration, smoke damage, smoke restoration, smoke damage restoration, smoke damage gold coast, soot cleaning