I was the victim of an arson fire back in the early '90s, and never did get the smoke stink out of my possessions. You could go along for a couple weeks, then sweat, and the clothes you were wearing would give off a horrible stink.
So, this is definitely a situation where you want to involve the insurance provider (s). There are professionals who do this, I assume they also fumigate for other problems, and they can probably give you good info on what can and cannot be cleaned and made smoke-free. Good luck. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 9:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [BlindHandyMan] um, yeah a fire Hi, I was iformed today that my mom's next door neighbor's house nearly burned down today. My mom, her cats, and 99 % of her house are fine. She says it smells like what an ashtray would think discusting. But she's trying to air it out. Other than the large concern of "will she ever be able to get that smell out of 1920's plaster over brick dividing walls?" The main concern is that she now knows where the cracks are. There is a foot wide by "floor to ceiling" black stain on a wall in a corner. She says that after she took off the wall paper, (last time) she made the paper hanger promise to mud that up. Maybe they didn't? So considering how badly the smoke penitrated her home there, what to do? Obviously the plaster is blaackened, as the crack is only a "double hairline" as she calls it. but as the dark stripe is a foot wide there must be residue in the plaster, which will smell. Does she need to have it removed down to the dividing brick, have new plaster put in, then plastic coated, before repapering? Or will new plaster and a vinyl wall paper do it? What will do it for her? If we can't rid the whole house of the smell but over time, what to do for that worst place 2 feet from her bed? Thanks, she's fine just shaken up. Best to you all. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
