Should I Arrange Ductwork Cleaning After Fire In My Nashville Home?

7/26/2018 (Permalink)

SERVPRO Says Call Us to Restore Your Fire-Damaged Home in Nashville--Odor-Free Indoor Air Quality

When fire blazes in your Nashville home the visible damage alone can be overwhelming. Understanding how smoke, ash, and soot move throughout your home really opens your eyes to the devastation you cannot see, including persistent odors and progressive deterioration within and beneath surfaces inadequately cleaned. Fire resides caught in your HVAC system are a significant source of unseen and recurring damage. Lining up our duct cleaning services is a wise move.
 
An HVAC system is very capable of moving smoke and soot throughout your Nashville home if running during a fire. Ductwork cleaning after an inspection is frequently indicated in this scenario. Even if your heating and cooling system did not operate during the fire, air’s passive movement during and after the crisis could send residues inside the configuration, soiling the ventilation system. Heated air travels with a great force carrying along particulates in its current. Our duct cleaning specialists are experts at evaluating the condition of the system, both return air and supply side, post-fire and completing the work when approved.
 
Fire residues are incredibly corrosive and attracted to the metal surfaces inside your ductwork. SERVPRO technicians know the heaviest deposits are expected near the vents closest to the fire site, but the inspection we do and the cleaning we complete is comprehensive. Risking incomplete remediation by attending only to the areas near the fire does not follow best industry practices. Halting the corrosion is equal in importance to removing the soot as the long-time efficiency of the HVAC system can be impaired if it suffers deterioration because of the characteristics of the fire residues.
 
Additionally, the chances are good that your ductwork already has debris inside that caused little trouble before the fire. The smoke blown or exhausted through an operating system or drifting through a disengaged system can mix with this baseline soiling. This action exacerbates the problem because the previous debris now takes on the smell and the acidity of the smoke, transforming from harmless to harmful. When SERVPRO technicians take on the ductwork cleaning, we evacuate all debris.
 
SERVPRO crews also consider using odor oxidizers or other advanced deodorizing techniques as the final phase of the duct cleaning. Nothing ruins a seemingly successful fire restoration faster than a lingering smoke smell. If that smell “lives” in your ductwork, the reminder of the fire and its damage is constant. Strangely, a human response to the knowledge of a house fire is a psychological phenomenon known as phantosmia. Though no physical present of odor-causing molecules is present, individuals perceive a persistent odor--in their own minds. Perception is reality. All the more reason to do a great professional job. Customers and our work crews much prefer no hint of the disaster -- “Like it never even happened.”
 
SERVPRO of South Nashville offers help with all aspects of fire damage restoration, including expert ductwork cleaning. Once the firefighters are on their way out the door, call us at (615) 331-0200 to arrange for HVAC system cleaning and completion of the many other tasks required after the disaster.

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