Many homes suffer from smoke damage as a result of fires or smokers. It’s easy to see why this can be a frustrating issue for homeowners, as it takes a lot of elbow grease to clean up the smell and discoloration that smoke leaves behind.
Smoke damage cleaning is best left to professionals, but there are some things you can do at home that will help speed up the process. First, open up as many windows as you can throughout your house to help ventilate. Secondly, put down a drop cloth on the floor. This will protect the carpet and flooring from any loose soot that may get dropped during the cleaning process.
The next step is to do a thorough inspection of your home and identify all the areas that need to be cleaned. This will give you a good idea of the scale of the cleanup project and help prevent you from getting distracted by smaller, less urgent issues and making matters worse.
Remember to wear rubber gloves while doing any cleaning. Touching sooty surfaces with your bare hands can cause permanent stains and also spread soot around more easily. It’s also a good idea to cover your mattress and any soft furnishings that need cleaning with plastic sheets.
After identifying all the items that need to be cleaned, you’ll need to gather your supplies. You’ll need safety equipment, a vacuum cleaner with a plain attachment, a dry chemical sponge (these are a special type of sponge that can be used to clean surfaces without getting them wet) and regular household laundry detergent or washing soda. You’ll also need some trisodium phosphate (TSP), which is an effective heavy-duty cleanser that can be used for problem areas, like soot, in your house. smoke damage cleaning