Soot Damage in Your Trinity Home from Fire

3/19/2019 (Permalink)

Smoke Detectors Provide Safety and Mitigate Fire Damage in Trinity

The Acidic Nature of Smoke and Soot Require Special Cleanup

After a fire, soot damage is very typical. Soot can be a black flaky or oily or powdery substance which forms from incomplete combustion. Fine carbonized compounds cling to surfaces in your home like ceilings and walls, plus your possessions. Soot can be difficult to remove, and sometimes it is not possible to restore the surface to its pre-fire condition.
 
There are two types of sediment you can find after fire damage to your Trinity home – oily and dry. A quick check you can do to discover the type of residue you have is just to run your finger over a soot-covered surface. It is oily residue if it smears. Try not to make a mess. Better yet, leave it to us to inspect and clean.
 
You need an experienced fire damage restoration team working with you to clean the soot from your home thoroughly. SERVPRO is standing by to help you as soon as the fire is out and everyone is safe. The longer you leave the smoky substance sitting in your home, the more damage it does.
 
Heat from the fire pushes the soot and can cover everything in its way. Smoke looks for a kind of equilibrium and travels until its energy is used and it goes to cooler temperatures. When tested, soot can always be found on the acidic side of the pH scale. Acidic materials are destructive to a majority of elements found in nature. Over time, they keep degrading materials by oxidation which leads to discoloration, etching, corrosion or pitting. Stains over metals can yellow and soften. These reactions are ongoing from soot residues until they are removed.
 
We can clean up oily residue with special degreasing agents, while we clean dry soot with cleaning sponges. Sometimes, soot will be oily in one room and dry in another. It all depends on the kinds of materials that were burned, so we check ahead of time before we begin remediation.
 
Many varying types of damage occur after a fire, including water damage from firefighting efforts, but soot damage continues to eat away at the surfaces it is covering if left untouched. SERVPRO of Tarpon knows how important it is to move fast in these situations, so give us a call as soon as possible at (727) 934-5555 so we can restore your home back to its preloss condition.

Data on Trinity.