Helping Hundreds of Buffalo Grove Homeowners Overcome Fire Damage

3/27/2023 (Permalink)

Fires and the damage they leave behind can be overwhelming. After your home in Chicago has suffered fire damage, contact SERVPRO.

We Use Professional Technicians for Fire Damaged Buffalo Grove Homes

There are 358,500 house fires in the US every year, according to data from 2022. Over 50% of these fires occur in the kitchen. Other common areas include bedrooms and chimneys. Emergencies like this can be hard to plan for because of their unexpected nature. SERVPRO is here to help return your fire damaged Buffalo Grove home to its preloss condition after a sudden disaster. 

Technicians specializing in restoring fire damage in Buffalo Grove often act as the crucial contact between homeowner and insurance adjuster. Adjusters assess the necessary claims for your insurance while technicians perform the restoration. One task for technicians in the early stages of restoration is to consult and test the damages in your home. By physically testing soot deposits on your home's contents and structure, we can pass on accurate advice to an insurance adjuster. A pre-testing toolkit usually includes dry sponges, detergents, scraping tools, and measuring equipment. The toolkit is vital to allowing technicians to organize restoration, assess equipment needs, and sort salvageable versus non-salvageable materials. A home may appear irreparably damaged after a fire, but careful testing can prove that this is not the case. 

Technicians Use Fire Pre-testing to Assess:

• What parts of the structure and contents are cleanable. Cleanable items can reduce claims expense by restoration instead of replacement.
• Color comparisons can provide definitive information on which parts of the home are unaffected and do not require additional work.
• Testing allows us to present an accurate data set to your insurance adjuster, which can help to speed up the process and estimate the overall work.

Efficient pre-testing can help SERVPRO to coordinate production. Coordination can include putting together a roster of technicians with the right skill set to perform the restoration. These may consist of carpet cleaning specialists (CCT), odor control technicians (OCT), or even general construction experts (OSHA). We can also organize subcontractors such as electrical repair to ensure the production process runs smoothly. A job file is created with photographic evidence of damages caused by fire, forms such as the authorization to perform service, briefing notes, and documenting damages. Job files help us communicate with you about works done and pass notation onto your insurer for a stress-free claim. 

Common tasks that result from pre-testing and coordinating production involve cleaning stubborn smoke residues and tackling odor problems. Smoke residues move into clean pockets of air during a fire. This movement can result in deposits building up in crevices and cracks. Sometimes, smoke can be stubborn to remove or greasy and wet. Using the results of our pre-test, we can use dry solvents to help dissolve soots into a solution. Applying a rinsing agent allows us to simultaneously remove both the soot and the solvent, leaving surfaces clean and smoke-free. Odor control often occurs once a property is clean and dry. If odors persist, advanced equipment such as misters are deployed to disperse deodorants into the environment. 

Restoration Equipment That Tackles Smoke and Odor

• Ultra low-volume thermal foggers (ULV) vaporize deodorants and allow technicians to fumigate large areas of the home quickly. 
• Chemical pairing agents in the ULV mist find odors and bond with them. This bonding process causes the particles to sink to the floor, where they can easily be cleaned. 
• Solvents for use on metal, wood, or textiles can be highly effective at cleaning, provided the material has been carefully pre-tested to avoid accidental damage. 

A home can often be restored from smoke or odor without replacing all belongings. Contact SERVPRO of Buffalo Grove / Lake Zurich for fire damage restoration at (847) 279-1940.