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As soon as the fire in your home is out, you might be pretty anxious to re-enter the home and start the cleanup process, but if you do not take the time out to get some professional advice from your insurance claims adjuster, you will probably just be wasting your time or even possibly causing more damage than you repair.  Your insurance adjuster can give you some advice on how to restore or replace anything that was damaged in the fire or refer you to a professional fire restoration company. 

Fire restoration companies can give you some tips to help prevent more damage from happening to your home and determine which items in your home can be refurbished.  They will also give you an estimate on how much it will cost to clean and deodorize the home thoroughly and even though the services of such a company can be expensive, it might be a lot less than actually having to replace the damaged furniture and floors of the home.

If you cannot afford a fire restoration company’s services, there are still some things that you can do on your own, but be sure that your fire marshal says that it is safe for you to go back in your home before you do, though. 

Get some air circulating through the home first; do this by opening windows and doors and using a fan to get the air moving around.  If there has been a lot of water damage due to the fire trucks doing their job and it is warm outside, you will want to instead use a dehumidifier and leave the windows and doors shut.  During cold weather, you will be running your heater and the furnace filter should be replaced until there is no soot in it.

Any wet items should be dried immediately.  Carpets and drapes must be dried thoroughly. 

A heavy duty vacuum cleaner may be needed to remove the soot and other burnt particles from your carpet and floors.  If you cannot afford to hire a professional cleaner to do this, do not use an upright vacuum cleaner or attachments because this will only set the soot and ash further into the carpet.  After you are done vacuuming the carpets, cover them with tarp to continue the cleaning process without soiling the carpet further.

Any copper or brass items need to be removed as soon as possible and cleaned with an appropriate metal cleaning chemical.  Smoke can severely damage these items if left untreated for over 24 hours.

Flood Damage Cleanup

One of the most frequent and well known causes of home insurance claims is water damage. It is not a pleasant experience to discover that not everything in your home insurance policy is covered, but it happens nonetheless. If an appliance such as a dishwasher begins to leak uncontrollably on a floor, or a pipe somehow bursts due to poor insulation during the winter and there is damage and mold left behind as a result, it is important to find out whether or not your insurance will cover it.

If a pipe was to burst during the winter while you were on vacation and you had not properly insulated it from the cold, you most likely will not be covered due to lack of preparation that would have helped to prevent this from happening in the first place. 

You should be covered for any water damage caused by the seemingly disregardable act of letting your bathtub overflow, even if you were on the phone or cooking and not paying much attention and forgot to simply turn off the bath water.  This accident is a fairly common occurrence.

Even in the common cases of a household appliance such as a dishwasher or washing machine suddenly malfunctioning and water gets all over the floor causing water damage, homeowner’s insurance will definitely cover this. Of course, you must pay for the necessary repairs on the machine on your own, but damage caused solely by the water is paid for by your insurance policy. 

If the cause of the water damage is a leaky roof, and there is a heavy rain, you are covered by your insurance claim. You are also covered if rain seeps into your basement, if your basement floods into the basement and into the house itself. If a tree limb was to break off and damage your home and water damage to the structure resulted, then this would also be covered.

However, any water damage that may have been caused by a flood is not likely to be covered unless your insurance policy identifies a flood as a covered source of damage to your home. You must purchase flood insurance directly from the federal government, and your local community should be able to help you acquire any information as to whether they are a participant in the National Flood Insurance Program.

Seattle Wet Carpet Drying