24/7 Emergency ServiceRemoving Smoke and Nicotine Odors from your Cobb County Home
9/27/2019 (Permalink)
Our contents department on site at a homeowner's fire loss. Carefully packing, cleaning, and deodorizing our customers belongings.
There is a tried and true method that will removal almost any odor, and it applies to almost all types of smells, including smoke. The “big secret” is somewhat simple, but the devil is in the details. In order to successfully remove any odor, you must first remove and/or clean the source of the smell. Once the source has been permanently neutralized, technicians will clean all surfaces paying special attention to horizontal surfaces. Even dust sized particles can carry smoke and nicotine smells, so all surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned using HEPA vacuums and professional cleaning products.
We will be taking a closer look at cleaning smoke and nicotine smell from your Cobb County home. The following bullet points are some typical steps or procedures SERVPRO professionals use to clean smoke and nicotine from homes and businesses.
- Cleaning is done using the top-down method. This process’s name is relatively self explanatory. It is best to clean smoke or nicotine residue starting with the ceiling and working your way down the walls, and all the way down to the floors. This will minimize the potential of re-soiling cleaned areas and insure that no spots are missed during the cleaning process.
- Wet clean all color safe or glossy finished walls and trim surfaces with a light detergent.
- We clean color safe or glossy finished cabinets, light fixtures, windows, and any other surfaces that aren’t part of your regular cleaning process with a light detergent.
- During the cleaning process, special attention is focused on horizontal surfaces. Horizontal surface provide an easy place for odor particles to land and can build up if not cleaned regularly. Examples of not commonly cleaned horizontal surfaces include door jams, window seals, window treatments/blinds, cabinet tops, and crown molding.
- Only soft white cloths are used to do this type of cleaning. We use soft white cloths to prevent damaging the surface, but also to verify that the nicotine is being removed. Because the cloth is white our technicians will be able to see yellow residue developing on the cleaning cloth as they clean. This indicates that the process is working and that the nicotine particles are successfully being removed. We will repeat this cleaning process until no yellow residue appears on the surface or cloth used to clean the surface.
- It is advisable to also have your ductwork thoroughly cleaned and HVAC filters replaced. Smoke and nicotine odor particles are typically airborne at some point, so it is likely that they have contaminated your HVAC system. Duct cleanings are an important step in removing smoke and nicotine odors.
- Thermal fog the entire affected area. Thermal fogging is a process where heat is applied to our professional deodorizing products using a thermal fogging machine. This machine releases a fog that smoke and nicotine odor particles are drawn to and are absorbed by, thus neutralizing the odor.
Nicotine and smoke odors are probably one of the more common odor related issues and can be cleaned up quickly and effectively by well trained and well equipped professionals. SERVPRO of Marietta West has tons of experience cleaning and restoring nicotine and smoke damaged homes and businesses. Our team of trained professionals have the knowledge base and experience to take on even the challenging odor issues.