Restoring Smoke Damaged Clothes

Anyone who has been the victim of a house fire will tell you that the cleanup that you have to do afterward is a huge chore and that a lot of things in your house will either have to be cleaned thoroughly or have to be replaced. Unfortunately, this includes something that everyone has to use on a daily basis: clothing. The vast majority of us have to wear clothing every day of our lives and if a fire were to affect our whole wardrobe, a lot of us would be in some trouble.

Fortunately for us, though, cleaning smoke damaged clothing is not always as difficult as some might make it out to be. You will need to sort your clothing fairly heavily, though, since there are so many factors involved. How soiled the clothing is, what it is made out of, and what color it is. This will be the most time consuming part of the whole task.

Some things will need to be dry cleaned, but you do not want to take these to a normal dry cleaning service. Make sure that the dry cleaning service that you are dealing with has experience in dealing with smoke damaged clothing items.

Sort your clothes. Lightly soiled clothing should be put into one group and heavily soiled items into another. Sort them further by dividing them into kinds of fabric. Put synthetic fabrics into one pile and organics such as wool and cotton in another. Further sort them by color type. Bright warm colors, cool colors, dark colors, and reds should be given their own group. Do not be concerned over whether there is enough in each pile to constitute a full load. Washing them separately like this is necessary.

Before you wash the heavily soiled clothing, take them outside and shake them out. The excess soot and ash need to be removed so that the water in the washing machine does not become too saturated with dirt to be of any real use. Heavily soiled clothes should be washed twice or more.

Use as much detergent as the washer requires and add about a cup of water conditioner to the mix. Some all-fabric bleach can also be used. Use as much water as your machine can handle for each load.

Synthetic items should be washed in warm water so that they do not start to wrinkle during the washer’s spin cycle. Wrinkles can be difficult to remove from synthetic fabrics.

Hang the clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer, but do not do this in your basement or a confined area. Clothes should never be hung to dry inside the house; only do this outside. After they dry, smell them and see if the smoke odor is still there. If it is, wash them again and repeat the drying process. It is also good to perform carpet cleaning in this manner as well for odor control issues.

Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Manhattan Water Damage Repair
and
Elizabeth NJ Water Damage Repair Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.

Water Sanitation Options

The most important thing that you need to have plenty of on hand during a hurricane or tropical storm is simply clean water. Clean water may be more difficult to obtain during these times than you might think, so you need to try and have plenty of it stocked up beforehand if you live in an area that is prone to having these serious storms. If you happen to run out before the storm is completely over, though, there are a few things that you can do to make sure that you have enough to last you.

For every person that will be with you during the storm, you should be saving at least one gallon for them per day for use.

An electricity generator that is powered by gas might be a good thing to have around, as well, since electricity tends to go out during hurricanes and tropical storms, affecting your ability to boil water for drinking. You can boil water on your stove for about 10 minutes or so and make it safe to drink as long as you filter out any sediment that might be in it first. Do not drink flood water, since this will likely have more in it than you can get rid of by simply boiling it.

If you do not have electricity, using chlorinated bleach to sanitize water is also a good idea. You only have to use a couple of drops for each gallon of water you want to sanitize. Be aware that you should only use regular chlorinated bleach for this process. Do not use lemon or any other scented bleach.

When you filter water out of your tap for boiling, you should pour this through a clean (white, if possible) cloth and let the water set until it is no longer cloudy. Do not under any circumstances drink water straight out of the tap after the storm has hit, since your water treatment plant could be contaminated. Do not drink water out of the tap that has not been boiled until your local government says that your tap water is safe to drink.

If you do not have electricity or bleach, then using some water purification tablets to sanitize your water is also an option. Purchase some of these at an outdoor supply store where hiking and camping supplies are.

Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Manhattan Water Damage Repair
and
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Westchester County Water Damage Repair

Tips On Preventing Wildfire Damage

While a house fire may be one of the most preventable disasters to happen to a home, a wildfire can be one of the least preventable on a small scale. Prevention of wildfires requires that a large number of people do what they can to make sure that the wildfires that do start are not manmade, but this awareness is only just now starting to catch on. When the fire is creeping toward your home, you are not likely to care what caused it, only what you can do to slow it down and in fact, there are a few different things that you can do to minimize the damage.

You may enjoy living in a more rural area, but you are at a disadvantage when it comes to wildfires because this is where they begin. One of the bad things about living in a rural area is that fire departments are not as prevalent, so the response to your home may not be as quick as you need it to be.

If you are contemplating having a home built for you, have it made of fire-resistant materials. Houses with an exterior made of brick, stone, or even metal will resist catching on fire much more than those that have exteriors made of wood or vinyl siding.

The most important exterior surface of your home is the roof. This is the largest surface area on the exterior of your home and it should be made of fire-resistant materials instead of the traditional wooden or oil-based shingles. Everyone knows that oil catches on fire very easily, so if you live in an area that is prone to wildfires, you may want to have another roofing material put on your home. Something else to do with your roof if a wildfire is nearby is to wet it down with the garden hose. This will give a little extra protection against the firebrands that are being carried in the air by the wind. Wetting the exterior walls of the house and wood decks is also a very good idea.

Do not allow any dead vegetation to build up in the yard. This includes grass cuttings, sticks, dead plants, and leaves. If a wildfire starts before you have a chance to get these dead organic materials cleaned up, all you can do is soak them and the rest of the yard with water via the hose and hope for the best.

Trees should also not be located close to the house, especially if the branches hang over the roof.


Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Newark NJ Water Removal
and
Charlotte Flooding Emergency Service Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.