A house fire is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone.
Besides the irreversible harm that the flames cause to personal items and structural materials, a house fire typically results in a plethora of supplementary hazards, too. One of these is smoke damage - it can ruin your walls, household textiles, clothes, and furniture.
How to fix smoke damage in your home? While this sizable task is best left to experts, some homeowners still want to tackle it on their own. If you’re one of them, keep reading - here are some DIY ideas on how to repair smoke damage by yourself:
Fixing Smoke Damage - Walls and Ceiling
Once you've properly ventilated the area and put on your heavy-duty gloves and safety goggles, place a drop cloth on the floor. The purpose of this cloth will be to protect your flooring or carpet from the soot stains.
The next thing you'll need to do is to remove any loose soot from your walls. To do this, you can use a dry chemical sponge or a vacuum cleaner. As they contain a chemical that removes the smoke and soot from walls, chemical sponges are highly recommended for this task.
In more severe cases, you will have to use a TSP solution. Add one tablespoon of TSP to a bucket of warm water, wet a sponge with the solution, and start rinsing your ceiling and walls. In case the smoke damage remains visible after this, you'll have no other choice but to prime and repaint your ceiling and walls.
To deal with the smoke odor, simply wipe your walls with white vinegar or spray them with any odor-eliminating product.
Fixing Smoke Damage - Household Textiles
To remove the soot from your carpet, drapes, and upholstery, use a vacuum cleaner. Hold the nozzle slightly above the surface of your household textiles and move it back and forth across them.
Once that's done, you'll have to deodorize the textiles. To do this, pour a cup of dishwashing detergent into 1 gallon of warm water, and then submerge your curtains and drapes into the mixture. Leave them there overnight. For household textiles that can be bleached, use a mixture of household bleach (one cup), TSP (6 tablespoons), and warm water (1 gallon).
Once they've been deodorized, your textiles will have to be cleaned thoroughly. You'll easily take care of machine-washable items, but the non-washable ones will have to be taken to a dry cleaner.
When it comes to carpets, on the other hand, have them cleaned professionally once they're fully dry. This will help make them as clean as possible.
Fixing Smoke Damage - Clothes
Once you've sorted what can and what can't be salvaged, you'll have to remove the soot from the clothes.
The simplest way to do this would be by taking the clothes outside and giving them a gentle shake. You can also use a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment.
Once you've removed the soot, you'll have to take a look at the fabric content of your clothes and clean them by using the appropriate cleaning method. For example, if the clothes in question are pure cotton, 50/50 polyester-cotton blend, or 65/35 polyester-cotton blend, you can return them to their original state by using liquid detergent.
Deodorization is the next step. Unfortunately, household deodorizers won't be of help here - the only thing they can do is to temporarily mask the smell. The same goes for dry cleaning, as it can't completely remove the smoke odor from clothes.
Try to remove the residual smoke odor by washing the clothes in warm water with various detergents for as many launderings as necessary.
Fixing Smoke Damage - Furniture
When it comes to cleaning smoke damage from wooden furniture, you'll want to be extra careful as you could easily damage the finish. Once you've vacuumed the soot, use a dry chemical sponge to wipe the wood. Finally, restore your wooden furniture with cream restoration polish.
Cleaning smoke damage from leather furniture can be just as tricky. After vacuuming the soot, wipe the leather with a cloth soaked in saddle soap. Since you can't shampoo leather, spray it with a half-water half-vinegar mixture and then wipe it off with a damp rag.
For fabric furniture, remove the fabric coverings and wash them in your washing machine. You'll want to increase the power of odor removal by enhancing the washing water with one cup of white vinegar.
Baking soda is another good odor absorber - sprinkle it over the affected furniture, leave it there for a couple of days, and then vacuum it with your vacuum cleaner.
If these fail, call an expert to deal with the smoke damage. Cleaning a smoke-damaged house is best left to knowledgeable professionals with specialized tools - you won’t be exposing yourself to harmful particles and unpleasant odors.
