Fire Damage? Give SERVPRO of North Elkhart County A Call!

12/12/2020 (Permalink)

One thing that heat does to something is it changes the chemical structure. Direct heat, such as a fire in a home, produces many different changes, both chemical and physical. During the time these changes take place, affected materials give off microscopic particles.

When a home or its contents burn, fire damage includes the effects caused by the multitude of particles given off during the blaze. These tiny substances float around the house, carried in the smoke, as well as in the steam created when firefighters' water hits hot and burning areas, and land everywhere. These continually disintegrate, and as they do, air currents already present in the home pull them back into the air you and your family breathe.

The specialists from SERVPRO eliminate the majority of these particles during standard soot cleanup procedures. The ones that find their way into cracks and crevices or the tiny spaces under cabinets and inside empty spaces between walls often remain where they fell, though, because we do not want to tear apart these structures to remove the soot.

Instead, we use different methods to remove them and the odors they cause. During fire damage mitigation, we often use machines that generate hydroxyl. This process is so safe that many food industry factories also use it on a daily basis. The only problem with this is that it does not remove particles that have yet to disintegrate enough and remain hidden.

Our IICRC-certified Odor Control Technician (OCT) uses other odor control techniques. After we complete the mitigation tasks your home requires, we can begin looking at odor control techniques. One that often provides the necessary odor control levels most homeowners desire is thermal fogging. Because this method produces a heated fog that travels throughout the home in the same way the smoke during the fire traveled, it reaches those areas hiding soot particles.

The chemicals in the fog combine with the soot and make the particles too heavy and stop them from disintegrating any more. The presence of these particles is what causes the odors your family smells when they enter the home. Thermal fogging, as well as strategically placed gel packs and injectable deodorizing liquids into upholstered furniture and carpets, makes your home's interior pleasant again, “Like it never even happened.”

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