Smoke damage in house

DREKLY

Hi, I wonder if anyone has had experience of removing soot and smoke damage from walls and ceilings?

An electrical appliance caught light, and then burnt some furnishings before it was discovered, and extinguished,
so now I have the grim task of cleaning up the mess.

What can I use to clean off the surfaces, water and liquid soap just seems to make it worse, is there something specific that can be sprayed on, to absorb or soak up soot?

Needless to say, I have had a quote from a specialist cleaning firm, but cannot afford their estimates.

Once cleaned, I am assuming a few coats of emulsion will improve the situation, I have never experienced this situation before, and don't really know where to begin:

Any advice will be much appreciated, thankyou in advance.

Aylesbury_Duck

Get a dry cleaning sponge (sometimes called a chemical sponge). Let the walls dry again before using it. You can buy them in most hardware stores. Once you’ve got the majority of it off, clean the residual marks off with sugar soap.

paddy's_mum

Baby wipes are very good at cleaning any items that have sustained smoke damage.

If you decide to clean and redecorate, be aware that housefire smoke is often very acidic and may continue to break through whatever paint you use. You might be wise to use a stain stopper finish first.

Don't keep anything electrical that was smoke damaged, for the same reason - that acid continues to eat away at wiring, elements, sensors etc and may in some cases render the item dangerous.

If you had insurance, you may find the insurance companies helpline very useful with tips on dealing with this kind of aftermath. Alternatively, your local fire brigade may have an adviser that you could speak to.

May I suggest also that you keep an eye on your own responses to such a frightening situation. Fire generates fear and the effects on your understanding of how the world works (and consequently your mental health) may become obvious only many months or years down the line - no insult to you intended but think PTSD finally being diagnosed months or years after the traumatic event that originally triggered it.

Good luck and I hope you can soon have your home shining again and put all this behind you.

DREKLY

Thanks for the replies, and also for the understanding, paddies, you
seem to be knowledgeable perhaps from previous experience of
what I am feeling... will let you know how things progress.

ljonski

My neighbour managed to get a charity to come in and clean their fire damaged rooms for free. They blitzed the place over a day with a large group of volunteers. A week later someone came and painted the walls and ceilings. Very hard work!

Ben84

paddy's_mum wrote: »

May I suggest also that you keep an eye on your own responses to such a frightening situation. Fire generates fear and the effects on your understanding of how the world works (and consequently your mental health) may become obvious only many months or years down the line - no insult to you intended but think PTSD finally being diagnosed months or years after the traumatic event that originally triggered it.

I can to some extent confirm this. I had a house fire many years ago and still have some anxiety about it. Nothing too extreme, but I get very tense about candles and leaving things turned on at the wall when I'm not using them. I think that's sensible though, nobody wants to go through that again. However, like the OP, mine was a fire involving a few items, rather than the whole house burnt down - which I'm sure would be far more stressful.

Anyway, fortunately our room had wallpaper and removing that took a lot of the smell with it. It takes a while to clear it all up. Stain block paint helped with the walls, it's designed to seal things. Without it, I found the stains came back. Fabrics and such are the real pain though - at least the ones you can't just stick in the washing machine.