Unpleasant Restoration Surprises: Tips For Dealing With Hazardous Materials When Restoring Your Home
Whether your home has been damaged by fire, water, or natural causes, the restoration work can bring about some unpleasant surprises, such as finding hazardous materials like asbestos, mold, or lead paint. Some of these problems may not be an issue until you need to have repairs done. Here are some tips to help with restorations when you find hazardous materials that need to be cleaned up:
1. Have Potentially Hazardous Materials Tested Before Starting Restorations
When your home is damaged, it may be tempting to jump in and start getting work done. If you know, or suspect that there are hazardous materials in your home, try to work around them. Contact a remediation service that deals with hazardous materials immediately. Professionals will come to your home and test the materials, and tell you if you can work around the materials and what needs to be done. You may be able to continue work on restorations around materials like asbestos, as long as the work area is well-ventilated and you do not disturb the materials and cause dust.
2. Seal Off Unaffected Areas of Your Home from Potentially Hazardous Materials
When your home is damaged due to things like fire, water or storms, there may only be some affected areas. Seal off the unaffected areas of your home using construction grade plastic. You want to keep potential air-borne particles out of the air in unaffected areas. In addition, seal off ductwork to prevent your HVAC system from circulating air from the affected areas. You may want to talk with the restoration contractor about helping disconnect ducts in affected areas, so you will still be able to use the HVAC system if you need it without spreading hazardous contamination through your home.
3. Make Sure Cleanup Of Hazardous Materials Is Done By Certified Professionals
There are many different types of hazardous materials found in homes, such as asbestos and lead. These materials—as well as hazardous molds, need to be cleaned up by a certified remediation service. The technicians will remove the materials and dispose of them properly. While there is some restoration work that you can do on your own, it is best to leave hazardous materials alone. Once the materials have been done, you will be able to continue with work that you need to do.
These are some tips to help with the restorations and cleaning up hazardous materials to complete the renovations to your home. Contact an abatement contractor like Hutzel & Associates, Inc to have any potentially hazardous materials evaluated and cleaned to complete the restoration work to your home.