If you have the misfortune of dealing with a fire damage restoration, there are many things that you may have to do. One of the problems that you may be facing is doing the demolition before the rebuilding process can begin. If you are planning on doing some of the work yourself, to help reduce costs, you may want to reuse as many materials as possible. Here are some tips to help you salvage as much material as possible during your fire damage restoration:   

1. Removing And Cleaning Flooring Materials With Only Smoke Damage

The fire that damages your home may not do as much damage to the flooring. In some cases, a lot of the flooring materials can be salvaged if you act quickly. For carpets, take them up quickly and clean them to save them, which the only thing you may want to replace is old padding. For tile and wood flooring, you will want to take it up and let it dry out. Any wood flooring that is warped you can set aside and save only the pieces in the best condition. Tile can be fine, but you may want to re-grout it to get smoke smells out.

2. Cleaning Up Trim Materials And Getting The Smoke Smell Out Of Wood

Another material that you can save that often gets thrown out is wood trim. Some of the pieces that are swollen or damaged by fire can be discarded. The pieces that have little physical damage can usually be cleaned up and reused. It is important that you sand any stain or paint off the wood because this is where smoke and fire smells are absorbed by the wood.

3. Exposing Structural Elements And Saving The Materials With Minimal Damage

Often with fire damage, there are going to be some structural repairs that need to be done. This often involves demolition of structural elements, such as wood framing and beams. This can be a place where a lot of material is wasted. You may want to save some of these materials and clean them up for rebuilding. A good rule-of-thumb is to discard any materials that are charred. If there is only smoke damage, you can clean the materials and reuse them during the renovations.

These are some tips to help you salvage as much of the materials as possible when you are restoring fire damage. Once you have the demolition done, you can contact a homeowner's insurance service (such as Harris Insurance Services) to talk with them about best practices when salvaging materials from fire damage restorations. You may want to talk with them ahead of time to get help with demolition and salvaging as much material as possible and find out about what work is covered by insurance policies.