Fire Damage Restoration Process: What to Expect
Posted on: 27 October 2022
Residential and commercial fire damage can cause devastating loss that is hard to recover. Though not all blazes will bring your property to the ground, small fires can cause immeasurable loss. Smoke, soot, and water are the most common culprits of this damage.
So, after extinguishing the fire on your property, do not hesitate to call fire damage restoration services.
Here is what to expect after hiring fire damage contractors.
Assessment and Containment of Fire Damage
Fire damage restoration experts will assess the damage as soon as your property is safe to enter. This step generally involves a careful examination of the structure and evaluating how far the smoke and flames penetrated it. They will also check for water intrusion and how much cleaning up is necessary.
Further, the contractors will go through the contents inside the property to determine which to restore and what they should discard. They will also perform emergency repairs to be safe during the rebuilding and restoration. The repairs involve constructing a fence and sealing parts of the roof to protect your property from more damage.
As part of the assessment, the fire damage contractors will record and document everything to help with your insurance claim. It will also help them estimate how long the project will take and the scope of work. Armed with this information, they will formulate cost estimates for the restoration.
Demolition, Water Extraction, and Clean-up
The contractors will do controlled demolition on irreparable parts. They will demolish and then remove damaged ceilings, walls, and flooring. These damaged areas often affect the restoration process; thus, the professionals remove them before they can start rebuilding.
Water damage restoration is also vital to further prevent damage due to corrosion and mold by extracting the water and drying out the affected parts. If you leave the water to sit for some time, you increase the chances of mold growth and more damage to your belongings.
Fire damage contractors will work with water extraction crews to dry the affected areas.
Another vital process in this step is cleaning up, smoke removal, and decontamination. This step is the most labor-intensive part of damage restoration. It involves manual labor to thoroughly clean soot and smoke on the exterior and interior surfaces. After a proper clean-up, damage contractors will use antimicrobial chemicals to sanitize and stop mold growth.
Reconstruction and Restoration
The last step is to restore the property to its pre-loss condition. The contractors achieve this by performing any necessary repairs and rebuild of damaged areas.
Some parts of the property may be unsalvageable going by the initial evaluation. Therefore, they have to either replace or remove them. This process may include replacing or repainting dry walls, rebuilding the roof, replacing flooring material, repairing or replacing electrical parts, and replacing counters.
Work with a fire damage restoration company to bring your property to its pre-loss condition.
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