The results of a fire can devastate a home or business in minutes. For those who are fortunate enough to stop fires before they spread, you’ll likely only require fire damage restoration in small areas or rooms. One of the most common questions we get is how to seal fire-damaged walls. There are a few ways to do it, but experts generally use four main steps to restore them.
How Do You Seal Fire Damaged Walls During Fire Damage Restoration?
To seal smoke and soot-damaged walls, fire damage restoration experts use techniques like dry cleaning, wet cleaning, primer, and paint to restore a home or business’s interior or exterior wall. It is important to have an expert examine the walls before you decide to restore them yourself.
Dry Cleaning
Fire damage restoration experts often advise customers to use dry cleaning sponges to remove smoke and soot damage. They can be used to remove smoke damage, soot, and chemicals on a wide range of surfaces, including metal, wood panels, wallpaper, textiles, and painted walls.
To start using a dry-cleaning process, cover the floor, carpet, or furnishings with a protective layering since the soot and smoke will become airborne. You should also wear PPE. Use the sponge at the ceiling first and wipe in downward strokes toward the baseboards. When the smoke and soot absorb in the sponge, you can remove the sponge’s top layer and continue.
Wet Cleaning
If some soot or smoke remains on the walls after the dry-cleaning technique, you can use a wet-cleaning technique to apply a second cleansing step. Fire damage restoration experts will use a commercial wet cleaner to loosen remaining soot, odors, or smoke that remain after the dry cleaning. It is important to allow the walls to completely dry before using the primer and paint.
Priming or Sealing
After you clean the fire damage and dry the walls, there may be staining. The walls may also still omit a fire odor. To do so, you will need to seal the walls with a primer or a sealer. This is crucial as walls that are not primed tend to still have odors and stains that will pass through the paint. If you are inexperienced with working with primers, ask a fire damage restoration expert for help.
Paint
The last step in fire damage restoration is sealing and restoring the walls after a fire. Prepare for prep work like filling in the holes with caulking and adding two coats of paint. Be sure that you choose the right type of paint depending on whether the fire damage is on the inside or outside of your home or office. If you still experience soot or smell odors, you must repeat the process.
At Restore Pro, we use commercial-grade equipment, cleaners, and techniques to seal fire-damaged walls properly. As the fire damage restoration process can be quite challenging, it is best to hire our experts to ensure the cleaning, priming, and painting steps are followed professionally and properly.
To learn more about how our Restore Pro experts can help you seal fire-damaged walls, you can call our office at 1-800-847-0114 or visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RestorePro911/.
