Experiencing a fire is not a welcomed experience, especially if it’s a big fire that destroys your valuables. Sometimes people experience smaller fires that can be controlled without calling the fire department, in this case, clean up is easier and can be done by the home owner.

Here are 4 tips to clean smoked damaged walls in your home:

1. Protect your self: Wear gloves, a mask, goggles and protective clothing.
2. Prepare the walls Wipe down the walls with a gentle cleaning solution. This will prepare the wall for a thorough cleaning.
3. Cleaning Solution: Buy a good quality cleaning solution. Make sure to follow the directions on the bottle and with a scrubby sponge begin to gently wipe the walls.
4. Use water: With a clean wet cloth, completely remove all the cleaning solution from the wall. If solution is left for too long it might create discoloration on the walls.

These tips are only useful if there is a very minimal smoke damage to the walls, for example; a small kitchen fire or a small candle fire. Other wise please contact Super Restoration to professionally clean and restore your damages. Some fires are too big and spread too fast, the most important thing in your home is you and your family. Please keep safety first and leave the mess to the professionals.

Surprisingly enough it never occurs to most people to check their air ducts for maintenance. A lot of people never clean them so just imagine what can build up in those tubes that direct your air flow. Vicious dust bunnies, unwanted insects or even mold can collect up there in those ducts. Keep in mind these are the same air ducts your air condition vents through which you inhale on a daily basis.   That alone can cause serious health risks to you and your family. Mold especially is something you should never take lightly, for example black mold is extremely dangerous and the spores can cause a major respiratory illness. We can’t stress it enough on how important it is to check your air ducts on a yearly basis especially if you live in an area with a lot of humidity.The health and safety of your family is very important and should never be jeopardized by the lack of treatment of your home.

One thing to take into account though is the complexity of cleaning air ducts. Its a very difficult process which requires a professional company like Super Restoration to get the job done properly. With the right equipment hired help is just a call away.  Here are some of the ways Super Restoration cleans air ducts.

Using an air compressor Super Restoration can dislodge everything that would be in your air ducts and get it all out. Doing this is very crucial for the process of cleaning it and with whips attached to the end of the compressor it will help loosen any buildup in your ducts.

Super Restoration also uses air hoses to help clear out any debris in your ducts.  With an assortment of attachments Super Restoration can guarantee a fully cleaned air duct free from any unwanted debris. For example brushes to sweep the sides of the air duct of  any dirt, mold, bugs and even carcasses. What would you do if you found out you had a dead rat laying in your air duct?  That’s just unacceptable to our standards.

Another handy tool Super Restoration uses is industrial vacuums to unclog the ducts and suck up any unwanted items. With our  industrial strength vacuums we can reach all areas of your air ducts and clear them up. So remember it is important to use professionals with the proper equipment to do the job right. We strongly suggest not doing it yourself unless you have industrial strength equipment at your disposal. It’s better to make the investment with a professional service to insure a healthier environment for your family to be in.  Be amazed with the majority of people  that never realize what they’re actually breathing. Contaminated air can go unnoticed until it’s already too late.   Any questions or concerns feel free to let Super Restoration know about your situation. We can help.

With the 19th Anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, we decided to look back and examine one of the worst storms that has ever hit South Florida, especially because one is in the Atlantic as we speak – Irene. Looking back on it, the weather pattern that hurricane season was not conducive for a tropical development. The 1991 El Nino lasted until early in the year, so systems were getting blown apart from the strong upper-level winds. Who knows what would have happened if it had never hit, needless to say tons of water damage and water extraction services would never have occurred.

On August 16th the first tropical depression of the year formed in the eastern Atlantic, and that is where it all started. For a couple of days no one knew whether or not the storm would even survive, and on August 21st Tropical Storm Andrew was 650 miles due east of Miami with 60 mph winds. The storm was forecasted to bend to the north in the general direction of central Florida. When the forecast upper-air charts arrived that day and they said that it would strengthen and move east over the original path, Tropical Storm Andrew became a threat and turned into Hurricane Andrew.

The next morning Andrew was a full-fledged hurricane with an eye, and faster speed. And by that night Andrew was a Category 3 with 125 mph winds and strengthening, things could not have been moving faster, or scarier. The following Sunday afternoon Andrew smashed Eleuthera in the eastern Bahamas.

That Monday everyone knew they were being hit, they just waited until the storm was over, a wait that felt like an eternity. Television stations recommended going to a safe spot and holding a mattress over people’s families and themselves, this advice saved thousands of lives. Stations even began moving locations to safer areas. And as people continued to wait it out, everyone was struck by terror. The worst of the storm was gone in about 3.5 hours. When people opened their doors in South Dade, or even got out from under their mattresses they were in disbelief as to what had just occurred.

As the national news programs covered the story, they reported that morning that Miami had “dodged a bullet,” but that was because they were in downtown Miami, miles away from where Andrew came ashore. The “hurricane zone,” as it came to be called, extended from Homestead and Florida City up to SW 120th street in Kendall.

After it hit anarchy struck, by Wednesday August 26, a hundred thousand people, if not more, were left without power, water, food, and security. The embattled director of the Dade County Emergency Management, went on TV and said, “Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one? They keep saying we’re going to get supplies. For God’s sake, where are they?” Apparently that was the catalyst for the government, and the U.S. military was sent. It did not happen immediately but by August 29th, the military was up and running and assuming control of the situation. A full six days after Andrew hit, people in South Dade got their first night’s sleep free from the fear that gangs of looters where going to break into their dark houses.

From August 21st to August 22nd then-Tropical Storm Irene moved over Puerto Rico, and produced tree and power line damage all across the island. Once it created a mess in Puerto Rico, Irene strengthened into a hurricane just as it would be hitting the Bahamas.

Below are some of the images of the water damage that occurred, they were taken by actual citizens of Puerto Rico.

Talk about it not being your day.

Irene decided it would be the first hurricane in the 2011 Atlantic season, and it decided it would do it big, unfortunately. We personally hate hurricanes, even if they do call for our water extraction services. We just hate seeing our customers distraught with water damage problems.

Irene has its sights set on the Bahamas and the East Coast of the United States. It already flew past Puerto Rico, and caused some destruction of its own there. Irene is forecasted to strengthen into a major hurricane, which means it’s set to be a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, by early Wednesday. It is set to hit the United States on Friday into the weekend.

The threat level has increased in portions of the central and northern Bahamas to extreme. While coastal portions of the Southeast United States remain in a high threat, it may change as the storm progresses but nothing is certain. The greatest probability of a U.S. landfall is in the Carolinas during the Friday night through Saturday time frame, possibly as a major hurricane. Irene can also hit the Northeast United States, the threat level there is currently low to medium, and is likely to change. If it were to get hit, it would arrive next Monday.

We decided to take a break from the water extraction and water damage talks, and discuss other topics, like fire suppression. We were talking to our friends at the National Climatic Data Center, and they calculated that during the January-July 2011 period, 6.1 million acres burned across the United States – the largest on record for the year-to-date period by nearly one million acres. Talk about red hot!

We have to put the blame somewhere, and it’s a no-brainer that the drought in the southern United States has enabled the wildfires. During July across the contiguous U.S., the overall size of the drought footprint expanded to cover 32.3% of the country according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More recently that percentage has grown to 40%.  On a state scale, as of mid August 2011, more than 78% of Texas, 64% of Oklahoma and nearly 50% of New Mexico are deep in the grips of an exceptional drought – the most extreme drought level.

How can droughts cause wildfires you may ask. Well, the dry vegetation provides high-octane fuel for the fires to breathe off of, the dominant ridge of high pressure has made it almost impossible for rain to occur, the surface soil moisture is now a stranger, and the humidity levels drop more and more each day. Aside from random thunderstorms, there really is no successive pattern that points to steady rainfall.

Even more bad news?  There are signs that La Nina, one of the main factors that have led to the dire drought and wildfire situation we face now, will make a return this coming fall and winter season.

The National Hurricane Center has come out with a list of the most costly tropical storms and hurricanes in history. Any guesses as to which made the list? Well, good, because we didn’t have the slightest clue which ones wreaked water damage and required the most water extraction, so that’s why we took a gander at the list ourselves.

The report used damage costs at the time it hit, and it did not adjust for inflation. Thankfully, our friends at The Weather Channel adjusted it, many of the changes were for the 2004, 2005 and 2008 seasons. And as if that wasn’t enough there was one hurricane that hit the 100 billion dollar mark, wow!

Since 1990 there have been 27 billion-dollar hurricanes and tropical storms. Eight of the top ten have occurred since 2004, especially between 2004 and 2005, what a surprise. Those two nasty years accounted for seven of the top ten most costly hurricanes in history. Seven of the hurricanes have passed the 10-billion dollar mark, and six of them have occurred since 2004. Jeez! Hopefully no hurricane joins their company this season.