To Restore or Replace After A House Fire?
Home inventory done efficiently with the right tools and team.
A house fire can be a devastating loss to you and your family. Fires can start quickly and leave you little or no time to get you and your family to safety. The most common cause of house fires is the common task of cooking. Sometimes you forget to check that pan on the stove or knock over a space heater; the result is the same: a fire or at least a home filled with smoke. Hopefully, if it is the latter, things can be cleaned and restored and get you back to normal quicker.
To Cash Out or Not Cash Out?
In a complete loss, does it pay to cash out and replace your items or restore them? The former may seem like the better and more enticing option, but be cautious; you have more in your home than you realize, and many of those items might be sentimental. Before you make the call to cash out with your insurance, it's essential to do a detailed inventory of what's in the home. There are plenty of home inventory applications to use for this task, and they quickly let you inventory from the palm of your hand using your smartphone. If digging through the mess doesn't sound like fun, then call in the professionals. As content restoration professionals, they will do all the digging, recording, and pricing of each item in your home and give you a detailed estimate of the cost to replace and restore your items. They have the expertise to know what is restorable and what isn't and can better estimate what it might cost you. They work for you and with your insurance, looking for what's best for your situation.
Dig a Little Deeper
After you've done a little digging and a little inventorying, you may change your mind quickly. It is easy to be overwhelmed by all the dark soot on all your furniture and walls. You might have found items within drawers and lidded totes that are usually pretty clean and only need a light clean. Clothes and bedding need a little washing, most likely with an industrial washer, but can be restored and save you the hassle of weeks trying to find new items online or in stores, as fun as that might sound on day one. Companies that use machines like the Esporta Washing Machine can clean four to five times the average consumer washer and get items to food grade clean. Even if you could use your washing machine in your home, it would take weeks to make sure each item is thoroughly clean, especially for oversized comforters, blankets, and dry-cleaned items.
Sentimental City
That favorite or childhood dress or maybe your wedding dress can sometimes be saved.
Your home basics are the first thing you might think about when it comes to restoring or replacing. Things like kitchen items, couches, televisions, and clothes. What about things like your wedding dress, photo albums, priceless kids' artwork, and grandma's china. These things can be hard to deal with when finding them in the rubble. They are filled with memories and bring back emotions when seeing them in that condition. Finding them, cleaning them, and returning them is just what you need. Whether it's framed art or old photos, a restoration company can usually save a lot of it for you and put the newly cleaned pictures in new frames and new albums for you.
So when you have a fire, and we hope you never do, and the question presented to you is whether you want to cash out with an elaborate check, it is okay to hesitate. Don't jump at the large amount; it's always better to get a professional assessment and find all the hidden things you may want to be cleaned instead of thrown out and replaced. Take your time, get help, and remember it's your home, your memories that you want to have with you to decide what you want to do with it.
A restoration company will dig through the mess, take photos, document, estimate, restore, and return from day one to the end. Their goal is to take your house from chaos back to home, walk alongside you, answer questions, and provide what you need while you are out of your home.