Before

After

Ghastly Fire Damage to a Smithtown Garage

With accelerants and oils common to the garage, a fire in this Smithtown home spread quickly through this parking area. The fast response of our SERVPRO team began vital cleaning and restoration efforts. 

Content Relocation and Cleaning After Smoke Damage

As you can see in the Before Photo by the shapes of soot damage, shelving was removed to clean up the residues. The After Photo also shows the formerly damaged garage door opener that needed uninstalling, removed, and cleaned off-site to restore its bright white appearance—removing these contents from the garage allowed for an easier cleaning path for the technicians working in the garage and allowed items to be cleaned and restored off-site while work continued in the garage. 

Efficient Soot Removal Strategies After Fire Damage

Among the most critical actions that our SERVPRO of Greater Smithtown team took in restoring and cleaning this property was addressing the presence of soot. As you can see in the Before Photo, a rapidly developing fire left the wall closest to the house contending with soot and soils that would require removal before the walls could be repainted. With a mixture of compositions, testing was required to identify what soot elimination process suited the situation best. Our SERVPRO team determined a combination of chemical sponges and wet cleaning strategies could remove the bulk of this threat, reducing the need for more direct measures like:

• Media blasting
• Aggressive mechanical cleaning
• Controlled demolition

Repainting Exposed Wall Surfaces Ceiling Elements

Once the walls were free of debris and residues, our SERVPRO of Greater Smithtown professionals could focus on priming and painting them. Odor-sealing primers prevent temperature fluctuations from reintroducing smoke odors to the garage after this structure fire. Once the garage was primed, it could be repainted, and with the customer’s wishes for some color to accent this addition of the house, a bold red was selected for one of the walls and the newly cleaned door, as you can see in the After Photo.

Removing Harsh Smoke Odors from the Garage

Because much of the damage remained in the garage area alone, our technicians were able to set up stationary hydroxyl generators to overcome smoke odors. These units also trap circulating soot particles and other solids with the onboard HEPA filtration process, making it a highly effective piece of machinery to utilize for this garage cleaning effort. While the hydroxyl machines were instrumental in reducing and ultimately removing smoke and burning odors, had the smells traveled beyond into the house, other deodorization options might have been necessary like:

• Thermal fogging
• Ozone machines
• Odor counteractant products

Cleaning and Refinishing the Garage Flooring 

Our technicians first had to remove any soot and smoke residues present on the concrete flooring. With our potent cleaning methods that can dissolve and emulsify oil-based soils, the finish on the flooring required reapplication. Our contractors matched the original sheen of the finished floor to create the polished and almost reflective look visible in the After Photo.