You don't need a full-blown fire to have smoke damage and other odors in your home. Sure, an accidental fire will leave behind smoke, but a closed fireplace flue can send smoke throughout your living room. A spill in the oven can clog your kitchen with smoke. No matter what caused the smoke smell, getting rid of it can be frustrating. If exposed to smoke for more than a few minutes, you get used to the odor. The cleaning process is challenging because you won't be able to tell whether you genuinely got rid of the smell or if your nose simply got used to it. Furthermore, most homeowners don't have the right tools and equipment to thoroughly cleanse the house of smoke.
Still, it's essential to remove the smoke completely. Smoke causes health issues, especially respiratory problems. Children, pets, and elderly family members may experience more sensitivity to the smoke. Furthermore, the longer you allow the smoke to stay, the more difficult it is to remove. If you call ANR Restoration, we'll alleviate the frustration and speed up the smoke removal process.
So why does smoke cause so many health problems? It all comes down to the burned substances. Woodsmoke, for instance, usually doesn't come with any adverse health effects. That's why most people can stand near a campfire or a lit fireplace without any major issues. If your smoke problem came from the chimney, you'd still want a professional service, but you won't have to worry about toxic substances. Unfortunately, wood isn't the only thing that burns in a house fire. Burnt plastic releases dioxins – poisons that cause a wide range of health problems. Some electronics contain mercury and other harmful chemicals that get released into the smoke as they burn. Even treated or painted wood can release toxic smoke because of the chemicals used in the treatment process. The health problems these types of smoke can cause include the following:
The longer you wait, the more dangerous and toxic your home becomes. Your best choice is to call ANR Restoration as soon as possible.
We mentioned that calling a professional cleanup crew can speed up the smoke removal process. It can also make that process safer. At , we have gas masks, respirators, and apparel made specifically for smoke removal jobs.
Furthermore, we can test the air quality as we work. We won't have to make guesses about how well we're doing while we clean your house. When we tell you your house is safe for you to live and sleep in again, you can have full confidence. While we clean up the smoke residue, we will only use products that have been proven both safe and effective. Our goal is to make your home clean and safe, not to bring more toxic chemicals into it. You can rest assured your whole family, including children and pets, will be safe in your house after our cleanup process.
You can contain a fire. You can't contain smoke. Smoke travels everywhere and lingers long after all of the other effects of a fire have gone. Walls, ceilings, carpets, and upholstery all absorb smoke. The odors sink deeply into these surfaces, making them tough to remove without professional help. That's why you still smell smoke even when you can't see it in the air anymore. What makes smoke even worse is the fact that it can travel across your home. Your ventilation and cooling systems can push the smoke into all areas of the house. Surface-level cleaning won't work to get rid of the damage. You need a cleaning process that goes way beyond the surface to reach every last wisp of smoke.
Aside from the smell, smoke can leave visible damage, too. Most commonly, a lot of items that absorb smoke turn yellow. Perhaps the worst part of this damage is that it doesn't always happen right away. Depending on the surface, it may take a few days or a few weeks to show the visible damage. You may think you've avoided terrible damage until your surfaces start to discolor, leaving you completely frustrated. At ANR Restoration, we know how to spot the earliest signs of smoke damage so you won't have to deal with this frustration later. Thanks to this early detection, we can save many of your soft surfaces from destruction. Harder surfaces often have to be replaced, though some of them can be saved as well. We can talk to you about what we can and cannot salvage during our initial assessment.