Cleaning a small amount of fire damage or smoke damage on walls of a home can seem doable yourself.
If your home has fire damage or if you are looking to purchase a home with previous smoke or fire damage on its walls, you should consider how much work might go into cleaning.
Smoke damage, smoke stains, and other types of fire damage on walls are notoriously hard to get out. The smell can seem like it will linger forever, too.
How to Clean Smoke or Fire Damaged Walls
Trisodium Phosphate (TSP)
Trisodium phosphate is a powerful cleaner agent that can get through some of the toughest stains on walls.
Typically you will mix TSP with hot water and apply it to stains with a scrub brush.
Do use caution with TSP, as it can cause eye and skin irritation and is dangerous if swallowed. Be sure to wear gloves, eye protection, and long sleeves when cleaning with TSP.
How to Clean a Fire Damaged Wall
- Use hot water for your TSP solution. Adjust to a stronger concentration of TSP for tougher stains.
- Start scrubbing from the bottom of the wall and work your way to the top.
- After multiple passes with TSP and water rinsing, go over the stains again with a magic sponge.
- Use a recommend primer for fire damaged walls such as Zinsser or Kilz.
- Consider getting a paint gun to make the job easier than paint rolling everything.
After applying primer to the fire damaged wall, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to your normal paint to help neutralize the smoke odor.
Contact a Professional Fire Restoration Service
Understand that it is extremely difficult to completely eliminate fire damage and smoke odors from walls. These stains and odors will likely still remain even after a lot of DIY effort.
You should always consider calling a professional fire damage restoration service for larger tasks.
ServiceMaster of San Francisco/San Mateo provides fire restoration, smoke odor removal, and soot cleanup services in the San Francisco, CA area and surrounding areas.
Our technicians are IICRC certified and experienced in removing stains, odors, and other signs of fire damage from walls, ceilings, and exteriors.
We are available 24/7 at (800) 439-8833 to provide fire damage restoration services.
Steve VanDenBerg is the owner of ServiceMaster Disaster Restoration and Recovery. He has over 30 years of experience working within the restoration industry and successfully leading start-ups, turnarounds, acquisitions and mergers, and rapidly growing companies.
Steve earned his BS in Business & Accounting from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI and began working for DSI Holdings as their Chief Financial Officer. When Steve began with DSI Holdings, they were running an underperforming ServiceMaster Restore franchise with one location. Steve implemented new policies and procedures for accounting and finance as well as a professional sales plan that increased profits eightfold over his time as the CFO. He was then promoted to President and CEO and in this time, he expanded the company from two locations with $4M in sales to 12 locations and $45M in sales. DSI Holdings became one of the largest disaster restoration companies in the U.S. and helped with major restoration projects throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Steve purchased ServiceMaster DRR in 2015 when the business was in decline. Drawing on his years of experience in turning around struggling ServiceMaster franchises, Steve overhauled our operations, including finance, sales, and marketing, which led to a quick turnaround. Within Steve’s first 24 months, sales increased by 60 percent. Steve also helped greatly improve our operating margins and established a relationship with California’s largest residential insurance company. Under Steve’s leadership, we have become one of the largest disaster restoration providers in California.
Steve has found great success in turning around struggling and stagnant restoration franchises by changing the business model and strategy, greatly increasing sales and profits. Many of the changes he has implemented have even been adopted by the franchisor into their operating model.