Cleaning Fire Damaged Contents With An Ultrasonic Cleaner
Smoke and fire damage restoration is a critically important part of getting people’s lives back in order after they have experienced a house fire. Many people don’t know that careful content restoration can often save most fire damaged items. This content restoration process not only saves and returns the treasured belongings to their owners, but it also reduces the insurance cost of the loss, as the restoration process often costs only about 30% of the replacement value.
At the site of the fire, Woodard’s technicians carefully inventory and pack the items, bringing them to our state-of-the-art fire damage restoration facility, the ContentCare Centersm to be deodorized, cleaned and restored to their earlier condition. The items we rescue vary, ranging from important documents and photos, to memorabilia, furniture, appliances, and electronics.
On the surface, other fire restoration companies appear to offer similar cleaning services, yet they often clean with outdated techniques, using just compressed air, solvents, rags and brushes. This “one size fits all” approach to cleaning everything from TVs to kitchen appliances fails to recognize how each item would respond best to the content restoration process.
For Woodard, this old-school practice is simply not acceptable. Instead, we have developed many different cleaning methods that are specific to the type of item we are restoring from fire or smoke damage.
Some smoke damage is addressed through a deodorizing process, then many items are given a thorough cleaning at a large ultrasonic cleaning station, which removes soot and grime. These items are carefully dried and repacked until they are set out for viewing with the owner and their insurance carrier.
Electronics are quickly taken to a dedicated cleaning area, where electronic restoration specialists disassemble, clean, dry and reassemble each item. At Woodard you can feel secure leaving your electronics in the hands of our experts, who are using the same strict smoke damage and fire restoration methods and equipment as the U.S. Department of Defense.
But it doesn’t stop there. Woodard has some of the best upholstery restoration experts. They analyze the upholstery to determine if a wet or dry cleaning would be most appropriate, then they clean it accordingly. We also dry and help protect documents and photographs by placing them in a controlled drying room that circulates warm dry air to completely dry the items. Not only that, but document reprocessing is also offered on-site.
If you experience smoke or fire damage, ask yourself if you want a “size fits all” cleaning approach, or customized care. Woodard’s restoration efforts cost no more than the old-school approaches, yet our restoration efforts save more original items, reducing the cost of the insurance claim, while returning more items to their owners. Woodard is a preferred provider for insurance carriers, and our surveys show that our customers are incredibly satisfied with our approach.
