If your home or business has suffered due to a fire, the damage caused by flames, smoke, soot, and water can be extremely tough to clean. The first step is to hire a professional restoration contractor. They will assess the damage and decide what can be restored and what’s a lost cause. The preferred and most effective method of cleaning fire damage is dry ice blasting, which can quickly restore any surface to its original condition.
The Problem
Whether the surface is made out of wood, metal, or even concrete – fire and smoke is incredibly damaging. Not only can there be severe damage, but smoke and soot can leave a long-lasting and powerful odor that will permeate the entire structure. Depending on the type of materials burned, some smoke damage is more challenging to clean than others.
“Wet smoke” is from a lower temperature fire which creates an oily residue that is difficult to remove. “Dry smoke” occurs from fires that burn extremely hot and creates a powdery residue that can coat every surface in a building. If there’s smoke from burning plastic or rubber, it can create smoke “webs” on the ceiling that smear once touched and carries an awful odor that saturates the surface.
In an attempt to remove smoke and fire damage, a restoration team might apply a conventional cleaning method, such as scraping by hand. However, this method is arduous work, and unfortunately, does not remove the odor caused by smoke damage. Sometimes, the workers might apply techniques such as sandblasting or soda blasting. While they can remove the smoke damage, the abrasive nature also damages the surface beneath. Additionally, this creates byproduct waste that needs to be cleaned up after the process is finished.
This increases the overall workload and effort required to restore fire and smoke damage, making it much more time-consuming. Depending on the space, conventional methods can take about 12-16 days to complete, requiring up to 12 workers. Additional time and effort is required for post-blasting cleanup. The overall time it takes to finish cleaning depends on the size of the space that’s damaged, but it’s obvious to see how the time and costs of traditional restoration methods can add up quickly.
The Solution
Dry ice blasting is the perfect method for fire restoration. Dry ice cleaning systems use non-abrasive mediums that are in the form of CO₂ pellets. Another bonus of using these CO₂ pellets is that they’re recycled, making this method eco-friendly, and they don’t damage the surrounding surfaces or equipment. How does the dry ice blasting process work? It’s actually a combination of thermal effect and kinetic energy. That may sound confusing, but essentially, the combination breaks the tension between the dirt and the surface, which effectively eliminates any dirt, grime, or contaminants.
Blasting with other mediums like soda or sand can leave byproducts and secondary waste. Using dry ice blasting doesn’t come with those extra hassles and time-consuming, tedious work. It doesn’t leave any leftover waste or byproducts because the particles of dry ice sublimate when they touch the surface. That means that they convert directly to a gas from a solid, skipping the liquid stage entirely, which is why they evaporate and leave no mess behind.
Using dry ice blasting is also fast, safe, and non-toxic, and it doesn’t create any downstream contamination, either. Another bonus of using dry ice blasting for smoke damage cleanup is that it reduces employee exposure to toxic chemical cleaning agents. Using dry ice blasting is also much quicker than conventional restoration methods. Typically, dry ice blasting follows this general time structure:
Wood: 7 – 10 ft²/min
Brick: 10+ ft²/min
Painted metal: 5 – 7 ft²/min
Using dry ice blasting can also remove stubborn soot and even eradicate vaporized synthetic resins or charred carbon. One of the most challenging parts of any fire restoration process is getting rid of the awful smell of smoke, which can permeate the entire building. However, dry ice blasting can successfully remove that acrid, burnt smell. It’s even effective at cleaning those tiny crevices around crown molding and trusses and even plumbing and wiring—and it never causes damage to the surface or structure’s integrity.
The Results
Based on the general calculation and time estimates above, dry ice blasting is not only more effective than traditional cleaning techniques but takes about half the time and half the number of people required to complete the job. Not only does it remove smoke and fire damage, but it eliminates any odor as well, which conventional methods simply don’t have the capabilities to achieve.
Using dry ice blasting can save an estimated 70% on restoration costs by reducing time, money, and manual labor. Dry ice blasting reduces cleaning time, increases cleaning speed, and reduces the overall costs and expenses, which is why it’s one of the most popular and effective methods for smoke and fire damage restoration. If you are a Restoration company looking to hire a dry ice blasting service, consider us! We’re Carmad Industrial and we’ve been doing this for over 15 years. Contact us today by calling us at 780-728-7140.