Smoke Damage Cleaning: A Complete How-To Guide

Dealing with the aftermath of smoke or fire damage in your home is an overwhelming endeavor. Stressful situations that cause damage to your home can seem impossible to work through. The better you prepare for the cleaning process, the easier it’ll be to work through the damages and repair your home.

While cleaning and repairs after incidents like smoke damage is never easy, there are a few ways to breakdown the process and make smoke damage cleaning easier.

Smoke Damage Overview

Smoke damage can be drastic, and repairing may take a lot of time. Paint peels and chips away, thick oily residue clings to the walls like permanent marker, and a layer of film seems to coat everything. When first returning to your home after fire or smoke damage, there can be a wide array of new issues from surface level to structural damages depending on the extent of the incident.

When it comes to cleaning smoke damage from a home, there are some crucial steps to take to minimize the cost and energy spent repairing damage. After you file a hazard insurance claim, here’s what you can do to fix the damages.

How To Clean Smoke Damage

When it’s time to repair the damage, there are a few ways to approach the situation to deal with it properly. Depending on the severity of the incident, it may be possible for you to fix the damages yourself. If you can perform smoke damage cleanup without a professional, it helps minimize expenses. Make sure to follow these steps so you don’t miss any repairs in your home.

1. Assess Smoke Damaged Areas

When you’ve had a chance to take a breath and get over the initial shock of the situation, the first step of cleaning smoke damage is to assess your home and determine what you can handle and what needs professional work.

Before you do anything in the home, make sure you have the fire department’s permission to go back inside as they may deem it too dangerous or may still be investigating the incident. Be careful when returning home to avoid injuries. 

2. Get Necessary Cleaning Supplies

You may have many of the products you’ll need for cleaning smoke damage around the house or available at your local grocery or hardware stores.

• Safety goggles to protect eyes
• Respirator mask to protect lungs
• Work gloves and rubber gloves to protect skin
• Chemical sponge (also called a dry-cleaning sponge)
• Bucket filled with hot water
• White vinegar
• Degreaser such as liquid soap, detergent or Trisodium phosphate (TSP) solution
• Tile, wood or vinyl floor cleaner and a mop
• Clean rags, terrycloth towel and #0000 steel wool
• Sponge
• Well-filtered Shop-Vac or vacuum with an upholstery attachment
• Drop cloth

3. Ventilate The Home

Before you begin the actual cleaning, preparing your home is key. You want to make sure you’re practicing safety and not causing further damage to the home. One of the most important steps to staying safe when dealing with smoke or fire damage is proper ventilation while cleaning.

Not only will the interior look smoky, it will also smell and feel smoky. Open all doors and windows and position fans to help remove lingering smoke odor from the home, help dry any damp areas from when the fire was extinguished and encourage airflow when cleaning with chemicals. You should turn off the HVAC system to stop the spread of smoke and soot, since these systems pull in nearby air and circulate it throughout the home.

4. Begin The Cleaning Process

Depending on the extent of the damage, you may have a lot of cleaning to do. Based on what parts of your home got damaged, here’s what you can do to clean it.

• Walls and ceilings: To start, vacuum loose soot from the floors and walls using an upholstery attachment to suck up the ashy particles and prevent smearing. Once its vacuumed, you can clean further based on the type of paint that’s on your walls. For flat painted walls, use dry removal methods like sponges or dry towels. If you have walls with semigloss, gloss or oil paint, use degreasers such as liquid soap or TSP.   
• Hardwood floors: Cleaning floors can also require extra care, especially if you have hardwoods floors. Mix your floor cleaner with warm water and mop the floor, making sure to dry afterward to avoid streaks. You may also want to use a buffer.
• Tile floors: If you have tile and grout, use a scrubbing machine to remove tough stains.
• Furniture: If your furniture is salvageable, start by wiping all wood surfaces with a dry chemical sponge to remove the soot. Then, lightly wipe down all wood surfaces with a cotton cloth using a ¼ cup oil soap solution (or wood cleaner) in a gallon of water.
• Carpet: If you haven’t done so already, run a vacuum over the affected areas to suck up any superficial debris. Do not use a brush attachment as it could drive soot into the fibers of the material. If you can, use a nonsteam carpet cleaning machine.
• Upholstery: When it comes to upholstery, if it’s removable, take it off the furniture and wash it in cold water. If it doesn’t come off, vacuum carefully and wipe with a chemical sponge. Then, use a foam cleaning solution to scrub the upholstery, and use a Shop-Vac to suck up the moisture afterward.

5. Hire A Professional If Needed

Some smoke damage may be beyond a DIY repair. For damage that’s more than surface level, hire a professional for smoke damage repair. This can be beneficial no matter the extent of damage. Professionals are trained in thoroughly inspecting a home and cleaning it correctly. They may find spots you missed or diagnose something as more damaged or a potential health risk. Professionals will also have access to specialized equipment, cleaning solutions and training to clean correctly and completely.

6. Prevent Future Fire Damage

Once your home has been cleaned and repaired, it can help to adopt new habits to reduce the chances of a fire happening again. The top causes of house fires include candles, cooking, electrical outlets, space heaters and smoking devices. That means protecting our homes from fires can be mostly in our control.

Here are a few things to consider when thinking of ways to prevent a fire in your home:

• Test all your smoke alarms and replace batteries as necessary.
• Don’t place flammable items near or around your stove or oven.
• Don’t leave the kitchen unattended when cooking.
• Change heating filters regularly.
• Inspect space heaters after use.
• Have your clothes dryer inspected once a year.
• Check the condition of electrical cords.
• Store flammable products very carefully.
• Don’t leave candles unattended.
• Ensure the damper is open and the chimney is clear before using the fireplace.
• Keep fire extinguishers handy.

Other Smoke Damage Repair Tips

While you may have cleaning covered, there are other challenges to tackle while dealing with smoke damage cleaning. Here are some further tips that may help as you work to fix your home.

• Contact your insurer: When you find out about smoke damage within your home, contact your insurance company. They may provide coverage for lost or damaged items in the incident.
• Throw away items: After a fire, many of your belongings may be damaged or ruined. Clothes, food or medicine could be too damaged to use, so make sure to check on the condition of your things and throw away anything that is no longer usable.
• Stick to a strict schedule: Smoke damage can have lasting impacts on a home and may worsen over time if left untreated. Sticking to a strict schedule to properly clean and repair your home may avoid long-lasting damages.

FAQs: Smoke Damage Cleaning

When faced with sudden damages and difficult cleaning situations, a lot of questions can arise. If you’re struggling to deal with a certain task, here are some solutions to common concerns homeowners find when going through smoke damage cleaning. Remember that if you’re finding more than surface-level damages, it’s best to talk to a professional who can assist with your home and clean or repair structural damages. 

How do you clean soot off the walls?

There are different types of smoke and soot damage depending on what burned and what type of smoke came from it. Each type of damage may have different requirements for cleaning, but most of the time soot can be cleaned through vacuuming.

What’s the best way to clean smoke damage?

Surface-level damages may usually be cleaned by vacuuming and using cleaning supplies. If the damages are worse than that, the best way to clean is to call a professional who can also perform repairs on your home.  

Is it possible to get rid of the smoke smell in a house?

Leaving windows open for ventilation may help reduce the smoke smell, as well as replacing HVAC filters to help clear the air and remove odors. If the smoke smell persists, using cleaners for absorbing or eliminating scents can make a larger difference than cleaners that only mask scents.

The Bottom Line

Dealing with the aftermath of a fire can be an overwhelming experience. Especially when it comes to clean up, it’s important to assess the damage and then make a plan to repair your home. It may be possible to perform smoke damage cleanup by yourself, but if it’s past surface-level damages, make sure to call a professional to properly clean your home. 

Check out our Homeowner Guide for more helpful tips to help you keep your home in the best condition.