After a fire, there’s a lot to think of. From structural damage to content and property damage, it can be hard to know what you should focus on first. While there is only so much you can do about the damage done to your property, there is something you can do about content damage.
Through content restoration, you can recover your items as long as you react promptly. However, it’s still vital to understand that the damage your content has sustained may affect the success of restoration.
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How Is the Viability of My Content Assessed Once It’s Been Damaged?
In order to determine how likely it is that something can be restored, there are a few different things we look at.
Smoke is one of the biggest factors that affect the viability of an item. Other factors that come into play are the temperature and whether the fire was smoldering or blazing. A larger fire will produce more heat and smoke and likely cause more damage, whereas a fire that was only smoldering may be less damaging.
If the content was removed from the premises immediately, it has a much higher chance of being restored than content that was left at the site for several days or even weeks. The longer your content is left in or near the damage, the less likely it is that restoration will be possible.
How Does Smoke Damage Content?
Smoke often does the most damage to your belongings, no matter what material they are made out of.
Carpet, upholstery, and curtains can be discolored and permanently stained by smoke. Even clothing may appear yellow and discolored. Of course, the lighter the color of your furniture or fabrics, the more obvious the staining will be. Even materials such as porcelain, wood, and plastic may quickly discolor if left too long.
Smoke leaves behind an odor that is hard to get rid of. It quickly attaches itself to porous materials and fabrics, making it very difficult to remove the scent of smoke even after several washes. As smoke may often carry other harmful chemicals, it’s vital to ensure your content is washed using special cleaning agents.
How Can I Reverse Smoke Damage?
Depending on what type of material your content is, smoke damage may be harder to reverse. So while you may try to react quickly on your own, if you don’t have the proper knowledge or tools to treat your content, you may end up unintentionally causing further damage.
Vacuuming soot off upholstery, carpeting, or other materials will worsen the damage as it forces chemicals and even soot particles to burrow deeper into the fabric. Despite how it may look, hand washing or sanitizing content at home may not remove harmful chemicals from your content and leave you exposed to hazardous chemicals.
As treating damaged content is a precarious process, it’s best to leave the work to our professionally trained staff, who can assess and treat your content properly.
What Can Be Restored?
When content is brought to our professionals, the odds of restoration are higher. This being said, not everything can be restored, even by professionals. It depends on the type of content and how much damage has been sustained.
If you react quickly and bring your content in to be restored, most things can be restored. Electronics, furniture, documents, heirlooms, photos, and even artwork are all commonly restored items. As long as you react quickly, most things can be brought back to life even after they’ve sustained fire damage.
Conclusion
Any material can be damaged during a fire. Even if the flames never touch your things, the lasting smoke and temperature damage will need to be addressed quickly to ensure that your content can be restored. It’s important that you act quickly, though, as even slight damage can become irreversible if left too long.