Three Ways The Fire Damages Your Home

Major Challenges That Disaster Restoration Companies Deal With Every Day

Fire is, perhaps, the most destructive disaster that your home can recover from.  The damage from a house fire is multifaceted – and goes hand-in-hand with damage from water, smoke, and mold.

Only by addressing all sources of damage to your home – and mitigating the damages completely – can  restore your house, preserve what personal property is salvageable, and return the space to livable conditions.

1.      Damaged Property

The most obvious issue in your home will be the damage dealt by fire – which will destroy just about anything it touches.  What a homeowner might initially overlook, however, is just how extensive the damage dealt by water and smoke are as well.

While a fire is often isolated to a small area in a room, smoke will waft throughout the room, staining and discoloring objects throughout the area.  And after water extinguishes the fire, you may have more than 500 gallons of water being sent into the building each minute – which will then flow throughout the home and cause catastrophic damages.

Each fire is different: it's not uncommon for a fire to involve more than a hundred different chemical reactions.  The lingering chemicals and damage that remain once the fire is extinguished can make for a complicated cleanup – one that's best conducted by a trained expert.

A well-trained (and well-established) disaster restoration expert will have a full arsenal of high-tech equipment at hand that will be able to take damaged personal property -- including computers, photographs, and other memorabilia -- and restore as much as possible.  If the company also does insurance restoration, they'll also be able to remove damaged structural material, and replace it with a newly remodeled space.

2.      Lingering Odors

Even with all fire-damaged materials removed, it's common to have a strong, lingering smell of smoke and chemicals in your home for years after the fire has been extinguished.  One reason for this is because the heat of the fire caused everything in the home to expand, opening pores that allowed smoke to collect in impossible-to-reach places. Lingering odors may also include the musty odor of mold, which may have grown on the negative side of drywall or in other areas.

In either case, the odors you smell are unpleasant, and are likely to be unhealthy to be breathing in on a regular basis.  These are odors that are not going to be possible to remove by conventional cleaning means, but can be effectively dealt with by a contractor with the proper training and certifications.

3.      Ongoing Damages

Perhaps the most dangerous (and underestimated) threat to your home from a fire is the ongoing damages that can occur when the moisture and humidity in your home is not properly dealt with.  In this industry, there are many fly-by-night contractors who take advantage of homeowners and their large insurance payments, performing minimal work in their home, and often without the proper training and experience.

The cost to remediate mold damages can potentially amount to more than the value of a house itself – and will almost certainly ruin the market value of a home.  Because of this, it's absolutely vital that ALL sources of moisture are thoroughly managed, particularly in wall cavities, under carpets, within insulation, and in other locations where moisture can be stored for long periods of time.

Avoiding mold damage is the primary reason that it's so important to call a disaster restoration expert right away – before it can begin to grow.  Once it does, it will grow rapidly on ALL surfaces, and lead to serious issues in a home.

This article brought to you by Olympic Restoration, specializing in fire and flood damage restoration in Dallas.  We offer 24-hour service seven days a week, 365 days a year.  For a free restoration quote, contact us today!