Five Classic Fire Damage Restoration Blunders
Dealing with the aftermath of a house fire is more than enough trouble. Compounding those difficulties with unnecessary mistakes during the fire damage restoration process is the last thing you need. The difficulty is that there are many different mistakes you can make without even realizing it. From our fire damage repair experts at Yellow Van in Grand Island, below are five mistakes you should avoid if your house is ever damaged by a fire.
Walking Across Dirty Or Damaged Carpet
When initially evaluating the extent of the damage, you may be tempted to walk across portions of your carpet that have endured fire damage. This, however, is typically unwise because it can drive the soot and water used to put out the fire deeper into the carpet. In the long run, this makes your carpets much more difficult to clean. You may also unwittingly track the soot into other areas of the home that weren’t damaged.
DIY Carpet Cleaning
In some cases, a DIY carpet cleaning effort might be sufficient to get the job done. In the case of cleaning your carpet after a fire, however, this is not the case. Specialized cleaners are needed to effectively remove soot from the carpet. These cleaners are expensive and not readily available to just anyone. Also, a professional carpet cleaner will be able to assess if your carpet is even worth saving in the first place.
Eating Or Drinking Anything Affected By The Smoke
Food that has been exposed to smoke, dirty water, and fire-fighting chemicals can be very hazardous to consume. Don’t hold onto potentially contaminated food in an attempt to reduce waste. It’s just not worth the risks. If you are in doubt at all as to whether a food product was affected by the smoke, you should air on the side of throwing it away. As a general rule, you should throw away any produce, opened packaged foods, foods in cardboard packaging, and food in canisters. Raw foods that were unpacked inside the refrigerator should also be thrown out after a kitchen fire.
Turning On Your Utilities Prematurely
It’s standard procedure to turn off all of a home’s utilities after fire damage has occurred. However, it is unwise to turn the utilities back on yourself. You should only do so if you are given the go-ahead by the cleaning and restoration company. This is because doing so may cause a gas leak or lead to an electric shock.
Not Calling A Professional Cleaning And Restoration Company
At the end of the day, the best thing you can do to avoid unnecessary damage after a house fire is to contact a professional fire damage restoration company for help.
Professional Fire Damage Repair In Grand Island
We at Yellow Van in Grand Island are one such company. With our superior equipment, training, and fire damage repair experience, we will be able to compassionately and effectively help you deal with the aftermath of a fire and get your life back to normal as soon as possible.
