Water Damage Odor Control - When Things Start To Smell Fishy

Seeing our house burning was probably the lowest point in my life. I kept on thinking about the stuff I left inside the house, the things that I would probably never recover, the amount of money that I would need to spend later on. Good thing I did not have to think about the rest of our family, since everyone has escaped the fire and no one got hurt.

It was a relief to find out that the fire damage in our house was not so extensive. We were able to recover most of our stuff, and the money that we had to spend was not so big after all, thanks to our fire damage insurance. The sad part is, though most of our stuff were unharmed by the fire, almost everything was damaged by the water and chemicals used to put out the fire. We did not have to deal with so much fire damage all right, but water damage restoration was what we had to cope with.

As if cleaning up after fire and water damage was not enough, we still had to deal with the odor after water damage cleanup. The smell of smoke coupled with the putrid smell of some dried up items was not exactly pleasing to the olfactory sense. Hence, water damage restoration is not considered complete until the lingering odor goes away.

We had to contact water damage restoration professionals to be able to get rid of the odor. They gave us four different options, since there are four known deodorization methods in water damage restoration. They are called "deodorization" methods because most of them just mask the odor but not really remove it. Only ozone restoration makes the odor go away for good.

The first technique was through the wet-fogging method, especially made for houses which incurred both fire and water damage. Unfortunately, we were not able to employ this method because this is best suited for light smoke odor only. This can also be used right after the fire in extinguished. We did not qualify for both criteria, since we started dealing with the odor a few days after the fire and water damage restoration procedures has started. But what happens in this method is that the deodorant used undergoes an atomization process, so that fine particles are able to permeate even the deepest crannies in your home, where the odor might be trapped. This may leave a damaging residue behind, so it is advisable to not do this method by yourself and contact a fire and water damage professional instead.

The second option is the dry-fogging method, which is better than the wet-fogging method because it does not leave a damaging residue. Air also circulates more easily than those emitted by a wet fogger.

If the first two options do not work for you, you can try the crystals method. These odor-absorbing crystals are placed in different parts of your house after the water damage restoration cleanup. These crystals also give out a pleasant smell, thus masking the unpleasant odor.

What we employed in our damaged house was the ozone restoration method, since this eliminates the odor rather than just mask them. In this method, the smoke odors are converted into odorless carbon dioxide and water vapor. It is not detrimental to the health, and is also effective in destroying mildew and mold, thus saving up on employing other water damage restoration procedures for removing mold and mildew.

Today, it would not even occur to me that our house suffered fire and water damage before. I highly recommend that you hire restoration professionals to get rid of the "fishy" smell once and for all.

About the Author

Wendi Watson does writeups for homeowners for water damage restoration and water damage restoration

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