Your Most Burning Questions About Fire Damage Answered!

9/23/2019 (Permalink)

Fire damage to your McAllen home can leave many lingering residues and odors. Contact the professionals at SERVPRO today for help.

Odor Removal in Your McAllen Home 

9/23/2019

Perla Chapa - Marketing Coordinator 

While there are many lingering effects after a fire loss incident in McAllen homes that property owners can overcome with elbow grease and the right focused cleaning efforts, there are other symptoms that ensure that returning a house to preloss condition is a significant challenge. Odor damages, for example, can spread far beyond an ignition source to affect multiple areas of a home, even rooms otherwise unaffected by the disaster. Reducing or eliminating the presence of these harsh scents often requires a higher grade of cleaning agent and units designed for deodorization in the restoration industry. 

When overcoming fire damage like lingering odors, SERVPRO professionals like ours must utilize multiple pieces of equipment. The best approach for professional deodorization gets determined by the severity of the condition, the affected materials, and the timeline to protect the rest of the household. While there are multiple units and approaches available to our professionals, the most commonly used by our team are: 

• Hydroxyl Generators 

These machines utilize both an onboard HEPA filtering system and produce free radicals to break down the molecular structure of foul odors on contact. These units are safe to use around people, pets, and softer materials. 

• Ozone Machines 

These units (and the larger chambers at SERVPRO facilities) produce a gas comprised of three oxygen atoms. These irregular compounds bond with odor molecules to neutralize them. This practice is not safe to use around humans and pets. 

• Thermal Foggers 

As you might expect from the name, thermal foggers generate heat which vaporizes a compound the fogger can use. In these applications, the fogging solution is a highly effective deodorization agent. This practice is ideal for open areas and softer materials. 

• Material Removal/Cleaning

Cleaning can help to noticeably reduce the presence of harsh odors in a fire-damaged area of your home. It is always the last resort of our SERVPRO professionals to allow for material removal and later replacement, and this decision only gets made with areas too severely damaged to preserve. 

While there are some aspects of fire damage that homeowners can address on their own when first responders leave the scene, symptoms like odors pose a much more challenging obstacle to overcome. Let our SERVPRO of McAllen team help you make it “Like it never even happened.” Give us a call at (956) 631-0348.