Puff back Cleanup in Hunterdon County, New Jersey

11/24/2020 (Permalink)

Here, you can see the black soot and smoke coming from an air vent after a furnace puff back in New Jersey.

When a puff back affects your New Jersey home, oily soot can cover every surface of your property. These unfortunate events require professional puff back cleaning by the soot damage restoration team at SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County.

What is a Puff back?

A puff back occurs when your furnace, boiler, or water heater accumulates unburned fuel in the combustion chamber. When this excess fuel finally ignites, it causes a misfire or explosion inside of your furnace. This then causes smoke and soot to enter your forced air system and spread throughout your entire home.

Puff backs can occur in both oil and gas furnaces, boilers, or water heaters, but are most common in oil-fired heating systems. This is because oil does not dissipate as easily as gas inside your combustion chamber and is thus more likely to build up. Puff backs caused by oil furnaces or boilers are also more damaging than gas furnace puff backs, simply because oil produces more soot than gas when it combusts.

Puff back Cleanup - Always Call The Professionals

After inspecting the sticky, smelly, black mess from a furnace puff back, you may turn to Google searching "How to clean soot from furnace puff back in New Jersey" - but you should stop right there! Puff back cleaning should always be handled by soot restoration professionals.

But why?

• Improper cleaning of soot and smoke can make the problem worse
• Scrubbing soot or smoke can embed it further into drywall or fabrics
• Without proper materials, equipment, or cleaning efforts, unwanted odors will be left behind
• Homeowners do not have the proper chemicals or materials to neutralize smoke and soot particles, causing them to linger and be harder to remove

After a puff back in your home, do the following:

• File a claim with your homeowners insurance company
• Call your HVAC technician to repair your heating system before using it again
• Contact your local puff back cleaning service for proper soot and smoke cleanup

A professional soot cleaning company in New Jersey will take the proper steps to ensure all smoke and soot has been removed from your property.

Puff back Cleanup Process

While every soot cleanup project is unique and requires a specialized plan, SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County follows the same general process every time:

1. Perform inspection and damage assessment - Our Project Managers will walk through your property and explain the clean up and deodorization process in detail.
2. Set up equipment - SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County utilizes equipment like HEPA air scrubbers to filter particulates out of the air. This helps begin the odor removal process.
3. Soot removal from all surfaces - The team at SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County will clean every inch of your property with specialized equipment to ensure all soot and smoke residues are removed.
4. Restoration of fabrics - Soft goods such as furniture, clothing, or bedding may be salvageable when cleaned properly by a soot damage restoration company.
5. Air duct cleaning - This step is important and is overlooked when homeowners perform cleanup themselves. The air ducts are what spread soot and smoke particles across your entire home and will do it again if not cleaned. This step is also hugely important for removing smoke odors.
6. Needed restoration - Depending on the severity of your puff back, some items or areas of your home may not be able to be cleaned. Instead, these materials may have to be replaced. It is also possible that re-painting is necessary.

How Can Puff Backs Damage Your Hunterdon County Home?

Puff backs can happen as a one large explosion or in smaller misfires every time the heating system turns on. One large misfire will be readily apparent in your home - suddenly causing smoke and black soot to cover walls, floors, ceilings, and furniture in your home. Small, constant misfires may not be immediately apparent until soot accumulates enough to be visible around vents or baseboards in your home.

Regardless of the size of a puff back, they can cause damage across your entire home. Damages from furnace puff backs include:

• A film of soot covering walls, ceilings, cabinets, floors, rugs, furniture, bedding, clothing, food, drapes, countertops, and more
• Soot and smoke particles may force you to throw out furniture or fabrics if they cannot be restored
• Damage to heating systems
• Risk of fire from disconnected or damaged flue vent connector
• Risk of carbon monoxide leak in building

Need Cleanup After A Puff Back in New Jersey? Call SERVPRO For A Free Estimate!

SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County accepts all insurance carriers and is open 24/7, 365 days a year to respond to your call. Whatever the disaster, we're ready to make it "Like it never even happened."