You wake up on a chilly New England morning after turning your heat on for the first time last night and you see grey ash on your walls. No, you didn’t sleep through a fire that was magically put out. It’s more like a small explosion in the burner chamber of your furnace. You have a soot puffback in RI!
What Is A Soot Puffback in RI?
A soot puffback in RI is when there is a mini-explosion from excess fuel inside the burner chamber of your furnace, water heater, or boiler, that ignites and causes it to puff back. It shoots soot out HVAC returns/supply grills and inevitably throughout your property.
Soot is made up of multiple materials such as foams, fabrics, paint, plastics, wool, wood, coal, oils, or other synthetic fibers. The particles are extremely small, even smaller than sand granules! Soot forms when these materials aren’t completely combusted during a fire or when your furnace, water heater, or boiler puffs back. It is a powdery, slick substance that sticks onto and discolors surfaces and objects throughout your home.
A soot puffback can happen nearly anywhere. Even in baseboard heating! Although, it is not as common since the copper piping with baseboard heating is more confined.
How Do I Know If I Have Soot Damage?
Other than the obvious gray or black soot around your HVAC returns or baseboards, another way you can tell if you had a soot puffback is from soot cobwebs.
You may think after a fire, spiders came into your house! But in reality, soot cobwebs have formed. This happens when ionized soot particles create chains. We'll ensure that you get the money from your claim to pay for proper fire & soot damage restoration! 🕸️ #SootDamage pic.twitter.com/BX87HswU3l
— Performance Adjusting (@PAdjusting) February 10, 2020
Although sometimes, soot is really easy to see, soot particles are so small that sometimes they aren’t visible to the human eye. If you have any reason to believe you have soot damage from a soot puffback in RI, call us and we will come out and take a look using the method below with soot sponges!
Does soot damage affect my health?
Since soot damage is so hard to see, your health may be affected without you knowing. Soot can travel throughout your home through the ductwork of your HVAC systems. Soot particles can travel through the air touching everything in your home. From the walls and ceilings to your electronics and childrens toys, soot puffbacks become a very dangerous situation for you and your family.
Soot is extremely corrosive and can contain chemicals which are harmful to breath in. Everything soot touches must be cleaned properly and safely to ensure the safety of you and your family.
Soot can cause:
- Asthma
- Bronchitis
- COPD
- Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Cancer
- Other deadly illnesses
How Is Soot Damage in RI Cleaned?
It takes professionals to clean soot damage, you should never attempt to do it yourself. Here are the steps to clean soot puffbacks in RI.
- Visual inspection
- Soot sponges to determine where the soot is
- Entire property to be cleaned by a licensed restoration company
- Deodorizer to remove the smell of soot
- Thermal fogger also to remove the smell and clean the air, most of the time a citrus scent
- Air scrubbers to scrub the air of soot particles
- After everything is cleaned, everything must be primed and painted to lock in any missed soot particles (soot can never be fully cleaned since the particles are so small)
- Clean out light fixtures, inspect and clean appliances, inspect and clean contents (furniture, clothing, electronics, etc.)
- Replacement of smoke detectors (to ensure they are working properly)
This seems like a lot, right? That’s why it is so important to not only hire a good soot damage restoration company in RI but also to make sure that every step of the cleaning and restoring process is paid for by your insurance company. That’s where we come in! We will ensure that every speck of soot is paid for by your insurance company to return your home or business back to normal.
Soot damage should be assessed and cleaned right away as a soot puffback can be the sign of something bigger (and more expensive!) to come. For example, your entire boiler can explode if this isn’t taken care of right away. Boilers can cost you around $4500 but will last you a long time. Make sure you’re keeping your home up to date and up to code to prevent things like this from happening!
What do I do after a soot puffback in RI?
The safest thing to do after a soot puffback in RI is to call us at 401-724-9111 to get started on your soot damage insurance claim. We will dispatch emergency restoration services to begin cleaning the soot damage. The stress from an insurance claim will be lifted from your shoulders as we do all of the work to ensure your claim is fully paid for. We handle every aspect of communication and negotiation with your insurance company.
Let's Get your home or business back to normal.
Learn more about soot damage in RI in our YouTube video below.
