water damage in West Lothian (10)

While you may be able to make repairs to your home yourself after a small localised fire, large amounts of fire damage need to be dealt with professionally.

Generally, restoration tradespeople will follow the below six steps:

1. Checking and assessing the damage: Once your local authority gives permission to re-enter the property, fire restoration companies will assess the level of damage. They can decide the level of restoration needed to ensure the building is safe for occupants.

2. Securing the site: Restoration companies will need to secure the property to ensure further damage doesn't happen. This may involve repairing holes in the roof, covering openings and fencing off the building.

3. Removing debris: After a big fire there will be a lot of fire damaged debris that needs to be removed before restoration can begin.

4. Tackling excess water: When putting out the house fire, the fire department will need to use water to quench the flames. This often leaves excess water in the home. A fire damage restoration service will need to remove this water and dry out the building before continuing.

5. Cleaning up the space: Before restoration starts, the areas of your home damaged by fire will need to be cleaned. It’s important to remove all traces of smoke and soot from the property.

Restoration: Finally, your restoration company can get started on restoring your home. This may involve making structural repairs, rebuilding the walls or roof and replacing damaged electrics.

If your home has been flooded or damaged by a leaky pipe, it’s essential that the moisture is removed as soon as possible. Otherwise it can do further damage, leading to damp and mould.

Large scale water damage restoration should be left to professionals to reduce the impact on your home.

Your water restoration company will:

1. Collect evidence: First things first, it’s vital that you have evidence of the water damage to your home for your insurance claim.

2. Assess the damage: A professional restoration service will want to look at the water damage in your home and assess the severity of the issue before continuing.

3. Make the space safe: Dealing with electrical issues is vital to prevent injury or further damage.

4. Clear out damaged materials: If water damage is severe, all the carpets, appliances, furniture, flooring and bedding in your home should be either thoroughly cleaned or replaced.

5. Remove water: As we mentioned before, removing as much water as possible should be done straight away. This may be done using fans, diffusers or water pumps.

Restoring the property: Once all the moisture has been removed from the home, repairs and restoration can begin.

Restoring your home after a fire or flood is not an overnight job.

The process will take time and if your home is unsafe to live in you’ll need to find alternative accommodation. It can take several weeks to properly repair damage after a flood and it could take months to restore a home following a large fire.

This really comes down to the scale of the fire and the damage it caused. For severely damaged homes, fire damage is quite expensive to repair. The actual price you pay will depend on a few factors including:

• The severity of the fire damage

• The size of the room that needs to be repaired

• The type of damage, for example, soot, smoke, fire or water damage

• Ease of access

• How many rooms need to be restored

Hopefully you can cover fire damage restoration costs with your home insurance, otherwise the average price for restoration is £35,681.

If you’d like to further explore this area, why not try our fire damage restoration cost guide?

Flooding can cause a lot of damage in very little time that can be time consuming to repair. This means the labour cost of water damage restoration will have a large impact on the total price you pay.

What’s more, the water damage repair cost for your UK home will vary depending on a few key factors. These may include:

• The amount of water that needs to be removed

• The size of your home and the damaged areas

• The type of water, for example, clean, grey or black

• The severity of the water damage

• Ease of access

• The cause of the damage

Before restoration can begin, as much water as possible should be removed from the property. This will cost an average of £2,633.50 for a UK home. It may then be necessary to repair everything from the floors to the roof in your home. As a rough guide, the cost of ceiling water damage repair is £1,550.

For more information, advice and tips, check out our water removal cost guide and our ceiling water damage repair cost guide.

Fire and flood restoration is essential to bring your home back up to code and make it safe to live in. The most effective way to accomplish this is by hiring a professional restoration services company.

Looking for fire and flood restoration companies in West Lothian? No problem, just try our free search feature to look through our trusted members in your local area.

Or, why not try our request a quote feature? We’ll do the legwork in finding three recommended tradespeople in your area. They’ll then contact you directly with a quote.