Which Advanced Deodorization Solutions Help Eliminate Stubborn Odor in Morris Plains?

7/19/2020 (Permalink)

Fire damage, if not taken care of properly, can leave lingering odors in your home for a long time. Contact SERVPRO for fire remediation services.

SERVPRO Uses Various Approaches to Manage Odor during Fire Restoration in Morris Plains Properties

Restoring a fire-damaged property is a lengthy process with a variety of issues to address, including cleaning soiled areas, removing damaged materials, and drying wet areas for the home to regain its preloss conditions. You may conduct all the primary restoration processes satisfactorily, but the offensive odors that develop during fire incidents may not go away. SERVPRO has skilled fire & smoke restoration technicians that can provide a tailored solution to match the complexities of the loss in your Morris Plains home.

What steps are considered basic deodorization during fire restoration in Morris Plains homes?

• Removal of odorous materials
• Use of masking agents
• Cleaning with products that have odor counteracting properties

The odor felt is one of the byproducts of the combustion process. Steps such as cleaning residues deposited on surfaces as well as clearing all charred materials from the property help remove a significant percentage of the odor experienced within a property. Some odor might also emanate from materials such as smoke or aerosols suspended in the air and therefore disappear when the air clears. Since that can take time, using masking agents helps because they produce a sweet scent to replace the bad odor. Our SERVPRO technicians use time-release beads for better control of the amount of scent released as well as to lengthen the release period.

Do all cleaning products remove odors?

Cleaning products contain various chemical agents that help remove soils, contaminants, and even odors. However, only a handful of products can remove odors. Some might also introduce new odors to the cleaned areas. Cleaning products are classified differently depending on the chemical agents they contain. Some typical options used in cleaning properties include:

• Bleaches

They can be powdered or in liquid form. They are perfect for boosting the cleaning process, especially if there are stained materials.

• Quaternary Compounds

They help control fungi such as mold that might develop at the fire loss site because of the moisture leftover from fire-fighting processes.

• Phenolics

These are aromatic alcohol-based agents that can be applied in different ways including fogging.

What sort of fire damage necessitates advanced deodorization? 

Any fire incident in your Morris Plains home, whether big or small, can leave stubborn odors that persist even after removal of residues, ventilating the area, and cleaning all soiled areas. Therefore, case-by-case evaluation of loss sites is necessary to determine the level of deodorization needed. Our SERVPRO crews have a deeper understanding of odors, thus making it easier to perform the necessary evaluations. For instance, we understand that fine odor particles penetrate deep into materials, depending on their level of porosity, thus creating an odor reservoir.

Removing smells embedded deep into materials requires the use of the right deodorizing agent and the correct delivery method that can reach all areas with hidden odor particles. 

Which advanced deodorization methods help remove fire odors?

• Applying pairing agents to affected areas
• Use of electrically generated deodorizers
• Use of filtration and absorption agents
• Applying surface sealing products

Our SERVPRO technicians use absorption or filtration agents when we suspect that an odor emanates from oily or wet residues. The products work by absorbing odorous materials. An example of this type of deodorization is the use of activated charcoal filters in the air filtration devices that we run in your  Morris Plains property during the restoration process.

For materials such as concrete, wood, or upholstery, which might absorb more odors, we neutralize the odors using pairing agents that combine with the odor particles. We use unique delivery methods such as ULV fogging or thermal fogging, which deliver the pairing agent in atomized form, thus allowing deep penetration into the affected materials. 

Another alternative is the use of electrically generated deodorizers such as Photocatalytic Oxidizers and Ozone generators. Apart from better reach to the odorous areas, the use of these machines also adds an aspect of convenience since the deodorization process can happen even as we perform other restoration tasks. For instance, we can set up the Photocatalytic Oxidizer to manage odors when we start the restoration. The machine works by shining UV rays on a titanium dioxide surface producing hydroxyl radicals that oxidize, thus breaking odors into water and carbon dioxide. 

Sometimes, applying all deodorization methods might not remove stubborn odor in some parts of your property. In such cases, we use sealers to help encapsulate the odor remnants within the affected material. We can use colorless sealers or pigmented ones depending on the location of the affected material.

Removing bad smells helps ensure your home is comfortable for you to stay. Call SERVPRO of East Central Morris County at (973) 887-9100 to help with deodorization, eliminating traces of a fire incident, "Like it never even happened."