Even after the emergency personnel has put out your house fire, the damage is still occurring. Smoke can result in significant damage not only to your home but to your personal property and possessions as well. Acting quickly is going to be crucial in mitigating the amount of damage that is sustained. You’ll be able to clean and salvage some of your household goods if treated immediately. Therefore, when you experience any sort of fire or smoke damage, don’t wait to hire a professional restoration construction company to help you with the cleanup. Here are a few ways in which the effects can be even more devastating if left untreated.
Cost Increase
The longer you wait to begin cleanup on fire and smoke damage, the longer the cleanup and treatment process is going to be. This is because the damage will get worse the longer they are left untreated, along with the smoke odor becoming more and more persistent and difficult to neutralize. As a result, the treatment process becomes much harder to accomplish and more time consuming to effectively clean up, ultimately coming at an increased cost.
Extensive Damage
When smoke and ash mix with water, they produce an extremely corrosive element. This element will slowly work to corrode away your floors, walls, ceilings, and all other surfaces in your home if not treated and cleaned up right away. Using soap and water to clean up this element is not going to be effective, you’ll need to bring in professionals who have the appropriate chemicals in order to contain the damage and clean up the element completely.
Soot Deposits
One of the first steps when cleaning up following a fire is to clean up and neutralize the soot residual and deposits left behind. If soot deposits are left untouched for a prolonged period of time, the soot can easily travel throughout your home and damage rooms that weren’t initially affected by the fire and smoke. Soot can stain walls, paint, carpet, furniture, window coverings, clothing, and a myriad of other household items.
Permanent Damage
If you do not begin cleanup as soon as possible, your home can suffer from permanent damage. Damage will typically begin to set in within hours following a fire, only intensifying with prolonged exposure. Noticeable permanent damage may include yellowing walls, corroded metal surfaces, damaged flooring, permanent stains to clothing, and wooden furniture that requires refinishing.
As you can see, following a fire it is imperative that you have a restoration construction company visit your home as soon as possible. This will allow them to begin the tedious cleanup process, minimizing damage and working to keep the overall cost as low as possible. Additionally, the sooner you are able to get restoration experts into your home, the sooner your home will be restored to its pre-fire condition, allowing you to move back in and resume life as usual.