Heed These Do’s and Don’ts Before Cleaning Your Home

Contractors who specialize in cleaning up smoke-damaged homes offered a few do’s and don’ts for residents who want to get started on cleaning up their homes before the professionals arrive:

* Contact your insurance company and get an appraiser out as soon as possible. Take pictures of damage that may have to be cleaned up before the appraiser arrives. Obtain and save all receipts.

* Wear protective gear. Ashes and soot are harmful.

* Keep air-conditioning and furnaces off and windows closed if smoke, ashes or soot are still swirling about. Air conditioners, especially, suck smoke into the house, further contaminating it.

* Change filters on furnaces and air conditioners if they were running while smoke was around. The old filters are likely filled with soot.

* Turn off the gas if you have to live elsewhere during repairs.

* Get soot off metal objects, like faucets, as soon as possible by using an oil-based spray, like WD-40. Soot is acidic and can corrode metal quickly.

* Leave soot on the walls and ceiling unless you know what you’re doing. Wiping soot from walls covered with flat paint can cause stains that would require repainting. Contractors use special sponges that are like pencil erasers.

* Don’t forget to clean computers, facsimile machines and other electronic gear and then cover them with plastic so additional soot doesn’t settle on them or get into them.

* Vacuum carpeting, upholstery and draperies lightly, or use a blower. Don’t use brushes; they grind soot into the fabric, making it more difficult to remove.

* Try to remove water quickly, pulling up carpets if necessary to help drying. Damage increases every day that water is allowed to stand, and that spurs growth of mold and mildew that can affect your health.

* Wash plants on both sides of leaves with water and water softener.

* Children and senior citizens should be relocated because they are more sensitive to soot, ash, mold and mildew.

* Use a licensed general contractor to repair any extensive smoke damage; that way, there are less likely to be hassles with your insurance company later.