Having a house fire is probably one of the most traumatic experiences that a homeowner can go through, but getting back into the home and getting things cleaned back up the way they were can be almost as difficult.  There is a lot of work to do and if not done correctly, the damage can be made even worse. 

After your fire marshal acknowledges that you can safely re-enter the home, the first thing that you need to do is make sure that the electricity to the home is off.  Considering the heavy amount of water that was poured into your home from the fire truck, you probably do not want to go back inside and risk electrocution.  After you do that, remove all the wet items from the home and let them stay outside to dry.  Try to make sure everything is dry between 24 and 48 hours, since if they are let to stay moist any longer than this, mold can start to grow.

Also, allowing pets back into the home is not advised, especially if you own a pet bird of any kind.  Birds are very sensitive to gases and smoke and if yours was in the house at the time of the fire, taking it to the vet for a physical is something to consider. 

Cleaning up smoke stains on the ceiling and walls is generally very difficult to do.  Most of the time all you will succeed in doing is smearing it around.  Painting over smoke stains like this is generally unavoidable.

Do not sit on any upholstered furniture if you can help it.  Vacuum up the soot with a hose (not with a brush attachment) by holding it over the fabric.  This will remove the soot without smearing it or setting it deeper into the upholstery. 

Open the doors and windows in the home as long as it is not humid or wet outside and allow the home to air out.  This will help to remove the smell of smoke and burnt material from the house.  Water damage to hardwood floors is likely if you try to speed up the drying process with an artificial source, such as a heater.

Carpet that has gotten wet should have as much water soaked up from it as possible and any standing water in the home needs to be gotten rid of immediately.  Carpet that has gotten wet can be saved if it is dried out soon, but if mold starts to grow in it, a lot of the time it is better to just throw it out than try to clean the whole thing.

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Here is a list of some of the things that you should know about mold, whether you’re a tenant, a landlord, or a homeowner. 

1. If you’re renting a property and it has mold when you move in, it’s your responsibility to report if to the property owner and it’s their responsibility to remove it if you intend to keep living there.  You are not responsible for this expense if you are merely renting.

2. You can’t get rid of all of the mold in your home.  Mold spores are a constant presence and while many are dangerous, some common types of mold are not. 

3. Mold isn’t always visible to the naked eye.  It grows not only where you can see it, but in places where you can’t like underneath wallpaper, behind walls, underneath your carpet, basements, air conditioners, and any other area in your home that is warm and moist.

4. Some of the most frequent culprits of letting mold into your house are structure flaws.  The ground surrounding your home should slope away from your home’s foundation to avoid letting moisture and standing water into the house, especially if you have a basement. 

5. While mold spores are indeed everywhere we go, higher concentrations of them can lead to health complications.  High concentrations of these spores in homes and businesses are what cause most problems as opposed to control tests done outdoors.

6. Professional laboratory testing is required to discover just what kind of mold you have living in your home.  No matter what kind of mold you might think you’re dealing with, it could probably just as easily be another variety.
   

7. Removing mold in your home can be a do-it-yourself project if the problem is not too severe.  Most people think that they should call a professional to remove even the smallest infestation, but this is not true.  If you’re on a budget and you know how to do it safely, removal of small mold colonies can be easy and wallet-friendly.

8. Most mold doesn’t need a steady supply of standing water to grow.  In fact, most molds don’t require more than the amount of condensation that forms on the outside of your glass when you’re having a cold drink after work, if that much.  The tiny water droplets that form inside your bathroom after a shower and stick to your wall are usually enough to nurse mold spores to life.

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When talking about mold, there are a few words and phrases everyone needs to know the meaning of and here are the most important ones.

“Mold”. Mold is a kind of fungus (belonging to the kingdom fungi) that grows both indoors and outdoors all around the world and there are many different species and colors. To some people the words fungi and mold are used interchangeably, but not all fungi are molds. Other fungi besides molds include something that most of us eat all the time: mushrooms. Certain kinds of mold are also used in the creation of specific kinds of cheese, so it is incorrect to think that all molds are bad for us.

Most of us don’t know what “mycotoxin” means, but it is what makes some kinds of molds dangerous. Mycotoxins are a compound that are produced by fungus that are dangerous to living things. The mold itself is not toxic, but the mycotoxins produced by the mold are and these are what cause health complications for some people.

When mold inspectors talk to you about “remediation”, you might not understand exactly what that means. The word “remediation” means to solve a problem and when it comes to mold, this means fixing the moisture and heating problem in the building where there is a mold infestation.

Stachybotrys is a genus of mold that has about 10 members and this grows mainly on dead plant materials. When it’s found indoors, it often grows on things like paper and canvas (this includes sheetrock that has a paper covering). This kind of mold is toxic and it is the mold that most people are thinking of when they say “black mold”, even though a few different kinds of mold are black. Not all black mold is stachybotrys.

Hidden mold is found in areas that you cannot see readily. They are colonies that can be found inside walls or in ventilation systems like inside air conditioners or inside the ducts themselves. Hidden mold in your ventilation system is important to get rid of because it’s distributing the mold throughout your home or business and spreading the infection to other areas where it will likely take root and grow.

The word “biocide” is a term that is meant to denote chemicals that kill organisms such as fungi or at the very least, slow their growth. The word “fungicide” is often used interchangeably with “biocide”.

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