One of the most devastating things that can happen to a home owner is a house fire. And more often than not, you would have to either replace or attempt to restore fire or smoke damaged items. If you choose to simply clean the items, you must make sure that you clean them thoroughly before you make use of them again. While it may be quite a chore to try and restore most fire damaged items in the house, clothing is an almost entirely different story. Cleaning smoke damaged clothing is a very simple thing to do, and is most dependent on when you decide to wash them, and with what cleaning agent you employ to wash them.
While it is very easy to clean to clean the clothing, the task in of itself can be very daunting and, quite frankly, boring. However, one thing that can make the task easier to accomplish in a timely manner is to simply sort out your clothes by fabric types. This will help to determine how to care for each individual fabric type. This helps to ensure that you do not cause more damage than there already was. There are some things that are important to have dry cleaned as opposed to the others that will simply need to placed in a washer in your laundry room.
It is best if you sort out the clothing in accordance to how much soot or ash the clothes have managed to absorb. You should group the lightly soiled items together with other lightly soiled items. And, obviously, you should clean them together as well. However, you should break the lightly soiled items down into other groups based on fabric types, because some fabrics may not need to be as strongly cleaned because it could cause more damage.
However, you should shake out heavily soot soiled clothing before you attempt to wash them. This will help to remove as much of the soot as possible. It is also very important that you break the more heavily soiled clothes up into groups, as you did with the lighter soiled clothes. You should also make sure and wash the items twice at the very least. This is to help make sure that the clothes are completely clean.
It is a good idea to use the full recommended amount of laundry detergent for each wash load. Depending on the clothing’s material, you will have to adjust the water’s temperature.
Showing posts with label mildew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mildew. Show all posts
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Water Damage, Mold, and Mildew
One of the worst mistakes that a homeowner can make is ignoring the possibility of water damage to their home. While it may not seem like the steam in your bathroom from your showers or baths can do a lot of damage to the room, over time it can discolor the ceiling and eventually cause the drywall to sag down and possibly even collapse. You can imagine what kind of damage to the value of your home this can do and if you have purchased a home with water damage to the floors or ceiling, you know how much of a headache it can be to remodel it.
The answer to the steam problem is to install a simple exhaust vent in the ceiling over the tub or shower. This allows the steam to escape outside the room and the house and stops it from being absorbed by your ceiling drywall. You can often paint over the discoloration of the drywall after it has been damaged, but if the slab is sagging or cracked in the middle, it needs to be replaced as soon as possible. The last thing you want is for a loved one to be in the bath and the ceiling collapse on them.
Mold is also a threat to this and other moist rooms in the house. Mildew also tends to build up on tile and stone. Mildew and mold are close to the same thing, since they are both fungi, but mold tends to grow on more porous surfaces.
We have all heard horror stories of the bath tub or the toilet falling through the floor and unfortunately, most of the time this is due to the floor boards rotting. Too much water has soaked the floor over the years and has caused the boards to become flimsy. You can prevent this by making sure the floor of your bathroom is a hard, non-porous surface such as tile. The floor should be completely water tight and you may want to even install a drain on the bathroom floor, just to make sure the water goes where it is supposed to.
Even if you have a watertight floor, keeping the bathroom as dry as possible is a good idea. Always dry off the floor and other surfaces in the room after you get done with your shower. This helps lower the humidity in the room and ensures that the person who comes in the room after you does not slip and fall.
The answer to the steam problem is to install a simple exhaust vent in the ceiling over the tub or shower. This allows the steam to escape outside the room and the house and stops it from being absorbed by your ceiling drywall. You can often paint over the discoloration of the drywall after it has been damaged, but if the slab is sagging or cracked in the middle, it needs to be replaced as soon as possible. The last thing you want is for a loved one to be in the bath and the ceiling collapse on them.
Mold is also a threat to this and other moist rooms in the house. Mildew also tends to build up on tile and stone. Mildew and mold are close to the same thing, since they are both fungi, but mold tends to grow on more porous surfaces.
We have all heard horror stories of the bath tub or the toilet falling through the floor and unfortunately, most of the time this is due to the floor boards rotting. Too much water has soaked the floor over the years and has caused the boards to become flimsy. You can prevent this by making sure the floor of your bathroom is a hard, non-porous surface such as tile. The floor should be completely water tight and you may want to even install a drain on the bathroom floor, just to make sure the water goes where it is supposed to.
Even if you have a watertight floor, keeping the bathroom as dry as possible is a good idea. Always dry off the floor and other surfaces in the room after you get done with your shower. This helps lower the humidity in the room and ensures that the person who comes in the room after you does not slip and fall.
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