How Are Fire-Damaged St. Anthony Household Contents Cleaned?

3/12/2021 (Permalink)

SERVPRO crews match soils and surfaces with effective strategies

The aftermath of a home fire in St. Anthony involves so much more than the charred, heat-damaged, and soot-covered floors, walls, and ceilings. Household goods, clothing, books, papers, furniture, keepsakes, and more also suffer copious amounts of harm from the fire and the water used to quell it. Replacing the items is costly, and the memories lost are impossible to repurchase.

What Can Homeowners Expect from SERVPRO’s Fire Restoration Crews?

Frequently some or all the contents are packed out of your St. Anthony home for fire restoration. SERVPRO production facility technicians evaluate the damage and match products and techniques to clean, dry, disinfect, and deodorize the articles in anticipation of being moved back into the restored structure. Some of the methods include:

• Dry cleaning -- appropriate for light, ashy soot, or preceding more intensive wet cleaning. Tools and techniques include brushing, vacuuming, dusting, and dry sponging.
• Wet cleaning -- offers more aggressive action for residues that are sticky and heavier. Water-based cleaning solutions are sprayed on, given a brief to moderate dwell time, and then are scrubbed and wiped off, suspending the soiling for removal.
• Foam cleaning -- a gentler variant of wet cleaning that uses soap solutions agitated into a foam to coat items like upholstery that cannot endure saturation. The foam and lighter residues are lifted off with a clean brush.
• Abrasive cleaning -- used when residues are heavier and tightly adhered. Either the cleaning solution or a tool contains a rough additive or surface to loosen the bond. Some cleaning solutions in this category can be oil-based if the soiling is as well.
• Immersion cleaning -- uses combinations of heat, dwell times, and different cleaners and solvents to “soak” off the soiling. A twist on immersion cleaning is ultrasonic cleaning which adds sound waves that create millions of tiny bubbles to loosen the grime.

Consult with the professionals at SERVPRO of Northeast Minneapolis to explore the options to have dire damaged contents restored to functionality and appearance. Call us at (612) 421-2040.