Cleaning Smoke & Soot in Your Northbridge Commercial Property

7/8/2019 (Permalink)

Our crew cleaning and restoring a garage after a fire damage in Northbridge, MA.

Fire damage can wreak havoc on your Northbridge commercial property. it can halt your hours of operation, which negatively effect your business and livelihood. Here are some steps to cleaning Smoke damage in your business. 

Cleaning Smoke Residue in Your Business:

The first step is to find the smoke residue or soot. Next, you must identify the type of residues and the surfaces they're on, because that will make all the difference when trying to get the smoke residue off. The next steps are to remove the residues and properly dispose of them.

Finding Residue

First, the estimator must inspect the property and test for smoke to determine exactly what services are necessary for your Northbridge home or business. Restoration technicians should pretest particular items to determine the best restoration procedure for that item (it all depends on the type of fabric/wall/surface you're restoring). 

Removing Residues

Residues must be captured before they can be removed. Restorers use air and fluids to release and carry soils away. Vacuuming and dissolving are two ways to contact soils and carry them off to be disposed of.

Vacuuming

Smoke particles are usually dry, so these particles that are attached to surfaces can be removed with substantial vacuum. Moisture contacting the particles can cause them to be absorbed by the surface and be difficult to remove. Always try to vacuum dry smoke residues from a surface before applying wet cleaning products.

Dissolving

Some residues and soils that are not loose particles are strongly attached to their surfaces, so using products to dissolved the residue will make removal a breeze.

Soil-type and surface are two main factors in dissolving soils. Some soils are water-soluble while others are not and require a solvent-based cleaning product. 

Dissolving 3-Steps 

Wash - Apply a cleaning agent to the surface and agitate it to penetrate and loosen soils. Once the soils are dissolved and held in suspension by the cleaning agent, they can be removed.

Rinse - Remove soils with a cleaning solution. This step depends on pressure, absorption, agitation, and airflow of the surfaces and environment.

Dry - Remove the remaining water or moisture and leftover soils from the material. Air movement, heat, and low humidity will allow drying to occur quickly. Use air movers or natural air movement by opening doors and windows, using ceiling fans, or turning on a smoke-free HVAC system.

After the initial steps, our team will come to the exact area where the fire took place and begin careful and efficient mitigation. Our highly-trained crew here at SERVPRO of Southern Worcester County will also look at specifics such as a fire sprinkler system to see where water damage may have taken place in the aftermath of fire damage. We will make sure your business is habitable and safe for employees and customers. We can help with a specific plan to address the commercial fire damage to all the spaces in the business. Then they can help develop a smoke cleaning plan. 

If you're in need of fire damage restoration in your home or business in the Southern Worcester County, Massachusetts area, please give us a call at (508) 234-3399.