3 Reasons Soot Cleanup Is a Professional Job | SERVPRO® of Piscataway

From adding storage to your garage to installing a whole new kitchen, DIY home improvements can be a great way to spend the weekend. However, even for the handiest of homeowners, there are some projects you shouldn’t attempt to tackle on your own.

If you’ve experienced a fire, it can be tempting to start the restoration process of your home right away—but hastily cleaning can often hurt more than it helps. Fires produce a substance called soot, which is part of what makes fire restoration such a tricky process. There are quite a few nuances to soot removal that homeowners often aren’t aware of—that’s why we’ve compiled some educational resources about why it isn’t the best project to attempt yourself:

1. Soot Can Release Toxic Substances Into the Air. Fires are made up of a variety of ingredients, and all of those ingredients are contained in soot. Carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen are the main components of fire, but every material the flames came into contact with have released chemicals as well. Textiles, plastics and paint can be extremely toxic once heated, and improper soot cleaning will re-infiltrate the air with these substances.

2. Soot Composition Will Vary. All fires are different, meaning every type of soot is different as well. While some soots might be powder-like in substance, others can be thick and sticky. It’s impossible to know what type of soot you’re dealing with until the cleaning process is started, and inexperienced handling of soot can ultimately cause more damage by spreading it further throughout your home.

3. Soot Doesn’t Stay Put. Because of soot’s airborne nature, it doesn’t simply remain centralized to the area the fire originated in. Soot will work its way into crevices, adhere to ceilings and even infiltrate the ducts and HVAC system—serving to spread it to even further parts of the home. Absorbent materials such as carpets, fabrics or upholstery are also magnets for soot, even if they were nowhere near the fire. While most homeowners want to launder their items and scrub the walls right away, without knowing the full range of damage, it is impossible to properly restore the home.

If you’ve been affected by a fire, don’t further the damage with improper cleaning. SERVPRO® of Piscataway has an expert team of fire restoration professionals that can get your life back to normal, faster.