Ask any homeowner who has had to deal with the aftermath of a fire and they will surely tell you that the most damaging aspect of the fire was the smoke. Even if you are fortunate enough to survive a fire disaster in your home, you still have the serious problem of dealing with the smoke damage.

The very first thing to do, once you have your wits about you, is to contact your insurance company. An adjuster should come to your home to see the damage for himself. It is also recommended that you take photographs of the affected area before you start to remove items from your home. Collect receipts for those items that have been damaged and be sure to take an inventory of everything that has received smoke damage, including clothing and food items. Under no circumstances should you plan to eat any opened packages of food that were anywhere near the source of the fire damage or smoke such as pasta, cereals, etc. The old saying 'when in doubt, throw it out' should be applied following a home fire.

The second thing you should do is to seek professional help from a smoke damage restoration team. Soot and smoke are difficult to deal with inside a home and there actually can be serious heath repercussions if the situation is not dealt with properly, so it pays to seek out the services of professionals. This type of company will come to your home to assess the extent and nature of the damage and will provide you with information regarding what you need to do. For instance, they may  ask you to collect clothing, draperies and other materials that were damaged by smoke so that they can take them to their facility for proper cleaning.

When the professional team gets to work, they will use industrial strength vacuums and brushing equipment along with special chemical solutions which will break down the soot and eliminate it from surfaces. In those hard-to-reach areas such as inside duct work, they may choose to  use a chemical sealer which will secure the soot permanently to the sides of the ducts.

It may be necessary for you to repaint your walls or remove the wallpaper and replace it with a new layer once the smoke damage repair has been completed.  If you had insurance coverage, your policy will most likely cover the expenses of this phase of the work as well as the cleanup.

Smoke damage remediation is one of the most frustrating and difficult tasks you could ever face as a homeowner. It requires a lot of time, effort and know-how and something that you should most definitely leave to a professional company.