Has anyone experienced smoke damage in their home?

[airwolfe1]

We experienced a house fire this week and although the fire damage was limited to the kitchen, the smoke and heat filled the entire house. The insurance company says that Service Master can get rid of the smoke smell completely, but I've never experienced this before. I remember having a friend several years ago having a fire, but they had to gut the house to get rid of the smoke smell. Can Service Master really get it out of the house?

By the way, I definitely advocate people having an active smoke/fire monitoring system in their home. We were away from home at the time of the fire and had it not been for the system notifying the fire department we would have lost the entire home. Also when I received the phone call from the service, I was able to tell them our dog was inside and where her kennel was located, so as soon as the firemen showed up they immediately went inside and rescued our canine companion. (Whew!)

I'm also glad to say, the water didn't get to my rocket shop so the kits and tubes are all damage free! (Another whew!)

 

[swimmer]

A couple weeks ago my daughter forgot about a pot of beans on the stove and while whe was gone the entire house filled with smoke. While the smoke left no visable residue the acrid smell was unbelievable. I thought the entire house would have to be repainted , etc. They called a restoration company who placed an ozone generator on top of the refrigerator and let it operate for 3.5 days. I was skeptical it would work and figured the $65.00 per day rental was money down the drain. They had to vacate the house while the generator operated.

Not only did the ozone generator remove the smoke smell it removed the family smell. In other words, the house was completely neutral when it came to any odor.

There is a liquid product called FireD that can be put in an atomizer and ran inside a closed home that will eliminate smoke odor. I found out about it while researching odor elimination. A local janitorial supply house recommended it.

 

[Nate]

I came home from school a couple years ago to find that my mom had left her soup on the stove from lunch. Although nothing had caught fire but the contents of the pan, the entire house smelled like burned beans. We had a fumigator come to clear it out.

I can't remember the details exactly, but he sealed all the houses and laid what he called "cedar bombs" (as I remember they were simply compressed air cans filled with an odor neutralizing compound and a nice cedar scent to replace it)

It worked very well for us, we were only out of the house for 2 days and when we returned the house smelled wonderful!

 

[wickball]

You know, this is one of the things I really like about this forum and that is you can learn about all kinds of other things besides rocketry that can help you out sometime in your life.
wick

 

[ericb]

I have worked with Servicemaster, here in my town. I used to own an electrical contracting company. On the few projects where I helped them, I thought they seemed to do a thorough job. They have some interesting techniques for smoke and odor removal. They cleaned everything in the house in conjunction with the repairs of the burned and water damaged parts of the homes. I think I even remember them cleaning jewelry.

I also did the wiring for reconstruction of some apartment buildings, working for the holding company. The damage was extensive. The one project involved more than 6 apartments in one fire. One thing I saw there, was that any wood that was slightly discolored, but not charred, they painted with Kilz primer to kill or hide odor. I don't know if that was the best idea or not, but the finished apartments did not stink when the work was finished.

One key thing for the water damage is to dry everything thoroughly. Carpet blowers will normally be needed for several days to dry low pile carpet that was flooded. Don't skimp or get lazy when drying things out. Moisture is your enemy in the long term.

 

[KermieD]

Originally posted by jcrocket
Not sure of all the details, but the guy said the acidity of the smoke 'etched' the porcelain tub so ,...).

Acidity of the smoke? In a bathroom? 50 bucks said it was the cleaning company and not the insurance company that called it totalled if that was the reason.

 

[OARJeepr]

Depending on what burned, it's possible that the smoke (well more likely the residue left from the smoke) will react with water vapor in the air, form acids, and etch the porcelain. Remember acid rain is essentially caused by "smoke" from power plants and industry.

 

[Pat Butler]

I saw Servicemaster clean up a house that had a fire in it and they did a very thorough job that took about 3 weeks. It seemed like they got rid of all of the odors, though I only visited the house one time after they were done. The first time I visited, one of their employees was in the yard washing the soot off individual dishes.

Another time, I rented office space where water pipe broke at 1am and flooded the basement and soaked everything. They came in and had large squirrel cage fans and pots of some sort of desicent powder and they dried the place out completely without any odors.

 

[KermieD]

Just struck me as odd that porcelain would be subject to that sort of thing.

 

[airwolfe1]

Wow...some really great input.

It seems as though the smoke damage is pretty severe and the insurance adjuster and contractor are discussing posssibly taking out all the drywall and starting over. The fire damage is limited to just the kitchen, but the smoke damage is the real issue. Now my concern is with all the electronics in the house. I understand the acitic soot and residue will slowly eat away at your micro circuits and a few months down the road your computer starts acting funny and eventually quits. Anyone know if these electronics can be sucessfully cleaned?

 

[judo]

A small printing company right around the corner from my house caught fire just the other morning. I saw a Service Master truck there yesterday. I don't know about the microcircuits. Try calling a small mom-and-pop used computer store.