Why the loss sets the method
After a fire the cleaning follows the residue, and the residue has its own standard. IICRC S700 covers fire residues and odors affecting a building, its systems and its contents after a fire event, and the restoration cleaning and fire odor management of buildings and contents. One of its parts is fire and smoke damage contents restoration, which is the work done on the items once they are out of the room.
Water and mold each send the contents down a different route. IICRC S500 covers water damage restoration in buildings and the personal property contained within those structures, with contents evaluation, restoration and remediation as a listed component. IICRC S520, in its fourth edition, covers mold remediation in buildings and the personal property contents of those structures, and contents remediation is one of its parts.
Material decides method more than the room it came from does. EPA Table 1, written for clean water and for a response inside 24 to 48 hours, sends non-valuable books and papers to disposal, has valuable or important items photocopied and the originals discarded, or frozen in a frost-free freezer or a meat locker, or freeze-dried. It notes that upholstered furniture may be difficult to completely dry within 48 hours, and it sends window drapes to the laundering or cleaning instructions their manufacturer recommends.
What cannot be brought back is kept, listed and shown. Items past restoring are held for the adjuster with the reason recorded against each line, and the Department of Insurance tells claimants to throw nothing damaged away until the adjuster has said so. Porous items reached by sewage or contaminated water are not cleaned and returned by default; they are handled under containment.
What contents restoration includes
Items are separated by what happened to them and by what they are made of, because a soot-covered hard surface, a wet upholstered chair and a box of damp paper each take a different route. The sorting is recorded against the inventory line for each piece.
Soot and smoke residue are cleaned off contents and the odor managed as S700 sets out, which is the part of that standard given to contents. Wildfires fall outside S700.
Salvageable pieces out of a water loss are extracted, dried and cleaned under the contents component of S500, with the category of the water setting what can be kept.
Valuable papers are photocopied and the originals discarded, or frozen in a freezer or freeze-dried; upholstery is extracted and dried, and drapes follow the laundering or cleaning instructions their manufacturer recommends.
Where mold has taken hold, contents remediation runs under S520, inside containment, with the porous items judged on what can be cleaned.
Anything that could not be restored is kept, photographed and put on a list of its own, and the cleaning record item by item goes into the claim file.
The standard is chosen by the loss the item came out of, and a single household can produce three: fire residue under S700, water under S500, mold under S520. The item's material then sets the method.
Where cleaning decides what returns
Homes after a fire
Smoke residue settles on everything in the house, so the contents go out and are cleaned away from the rooms still being worked on.
Apartments and HOA homes
Each household's items are cleaned and tracked under its own name, and what could not be saved stays on that household's own list.
Offices and medical suites
Files and paper records decide the pace, because EPA Table 1 puts them through photocopying, freezing or freeze-drying while the furniture waits.
Retail stock and fixtures
Stock and display units carrying soot or water from a neighbouring suite are cleaned item by item, with the unsalvageable held for inspection.
Hotel rooms and linens
Guest-room furniture, linens and drapes are cleaned to the manufacturer's instructions where they exist, room set by room set, so a floor goes back into use complete.
Buildings with contaminated water
EPA Table 1 covers clean water only, so porous contents reached by sewage or floodwater are handled under containment and listed for the adjuster.
Questions about contents restoration
By the loss and by the material. Fire residue and odor are worked to S700, water damage to the contents component of S500, and mold to the contents remediation part of S520. Within that, EPA Table 1 sets the handling for books and papers, upholstered furniture, window drapes and hard surfaces.
Some can. EPA Table 1 discards books and papers of no value, has the valuable or important ones photocopied and the originals discarded, and sends the rest to a frost-free freezer, a meat locker or a freeze-drier. Table 1 assumes clean water throughout, so a contaminated source changes the handling of every porous item.
Because it holds water through its filling as well as its cover. EPA Table 1 records that an upholstered piece may be difficult to completely dry within 48 hours, and adds that where an item has high monetary or sentimental value a restoration specialist is worth consulting.
It is managed as part of the cleaning. S700 covers fire odor management of buildings and contents together, so an item is worked until the residue and the odor both go, and items that hold odor after treatment are listed for the adjuster.
Both happen. Items cleaned where they stand belong to the fire and mold services, which keep on-site cleaning; this page covers what is cleaned after it has been packed out and moved.
Contents restoration by city
Contents restoration is requested through the contents pack-out page for your city, which sets out the losses behind it and the response window.
