Repairing and Restoring Fire Damage in New Providence

3/30/2023 (Permalink)

We can quickly get fire and odor damage under control in your New Providence home.

SERVPRO Fire and Smoke Damage Technicians Can Help Rescue your New Providence Home

Fires can spread quickly through a home, latching onto combustible materials like woods and fabrics. Leaving candles, stoves, or electronics unattended can all contribute to a property disaster that often requires professional help to restore. SERVPRO is a local organization that can help return your home to a preloss condition after an emergency.

The impact of fire damage in your New Providence home can vary depending on where it began, the type of belongings that ignited, and whether doors or windows were open. One of the most significant impacts is smoke which can travel quickly through a home and leave behind unpleasant odors or residues. Combustion increases the temperature in an indoor space which in turn causes air to rise rapidly and push cooler air toward the floor. This pressure often results in the heaviest smoke deposits directly above the flames, while lower portions of the room, such as carpets or floors, only sustain moderate damage. Placing old sheets or towels over belongings, surfaces, and floors immediately after extinguishing flames can help reduce damage by covering items from falling soot or ash. 

At SERVPRO, our goal is to restore your home to a preloss condition. But there are many steps in that process because a disaster like this can affect your home in many ways. First, our technicians must clear the property of all non-salvageable materials. Common materials damaged beyond repair are flammable ones such as draperies, wallpaper, and textiles. Sometimes parts of a building assembly, such as gypsum board, maybe deemed non-salvageable due to intense penetration from smoke. Our approach is to divide these tasks among our team members to ensure that the work is completed as quickly as possible. A production technician works on disposing of debris and storing or packing away items to clean later. Simultaneously, our crew chiefs set to work pre-testing smoke damages and with your adjuster to provide a verbal estimate. 

Early Stages of Restoration 

• The service team receives your notification of loss and arranges equipment, trucks, and personnel for arrival at your home within four hours.
• Technicians pre-test smoke deposits and charred materials to produce a verbal estimate with your adjuster.
• Technicians arrange dumpsters for debris removal and work to pack away salvageable items for restoration later.

A critical part of restoration is odor control. Odor particles are volatile particles that are released when materials combust. Synthetic materials remove the most pungent odors, but the burning of organic materials can also fill a property with a burning smell. Odor particles gradually dissipate by themselves, but we understand that the several weeks this dissipation takes can be unacceptable to homeowners and affect your quality of life at the property. We have specialized odor control technicians (OCT) that have an arsenal of equipment to counteract malodors. Despite this technology, it can often be the case that odors are dealt with through thorough cleaning and smoke removal. Our team can use various methods to control odor when that is not the case.

Equipment for Removing Smoke Odors from Home

• Air Filtration Devices (AFDs) can be set up in your home to extract microscopic particles from the air and pass them through filters. AFDs can often indirectly reduce odor.
• Hydroxyl generators use UV-C rays to neutralize odors or compounds from indoor air and are safe to use in properties with occupants or pets.
• oZone generators release an unstable gas into the area that eliminates odor. However, O3 gas is harmful, meaning these machines require temporarily vacating the property.

If an accidental fire damages your home, contact SERVPRO of Western Union County for fire damage restoration at (908) 791-9177.