Dealing with smoke damage....
 

Think I am "insert naughty word here".

Yesterday my neighbours suffered a fire in a brick built outbuilding, which adjoins mine.

I now have a shed full of totally smoke blackened items, I am guessing there is little point in attempting to salvage anything and I will be looking at replacing all of the lost items at my cost, as my insurance sadly lapsed and I simply forgot to renew it.

Or is there some trick(s) to cleaning up affected items?

Thoughts?

Surely you can claim from their insurance?

I have googled around a bit and as far as I can tell you need to prove there was negligence on their part and the insurance company will only accept claims from another insurance company, not the affected party.

Edit - Haven't discussed it with them, but since their home is council owned they may not have buildings insurance for me to even think of claiming against.

I have realised there is also damage to one or more metal profile sheets used on the roof. The paint is black and peeling in places on my side, their side I way worse.

May be damage inside, can't tell myself.

try asking on a legal forum.
https://legalbeagles.info/
I'm sure you must be able to claim compensation

macafee2

Anyone dealt with smoke damaged items (tools, electricals, etc) and have any tips to share?

His neighbour might not be insured, or if they are, the claim could be met or it could be contested and litigation can be costly and drawn out. In 2011, our family farm in South Africa and house was lost in a fire caused by our neighbours doing a controlled burn on their farm. The wind picked up and the fire swept across to us at high speed, we didn't stand a chance, our stand pipes, fire hoses, water pumps, tools all melted and it also took out several other homes and a 5 star hotel outside of the farm was completely destroyed. Even though we were victims, we had claims against us from the fire brigade helicopter as we were water bombed. Our house was the first to burn down and we were there at the time, it was stressful and challenging. Litigation went on for 4 years against the neighbours and we were insured. During that time, the fire brigade threatened to get us credit black listed unless we paid up. Their chopper is 1000 USD per hour.

It took us 3 years to rebuild everything, the farm and houses. 2 years for the vines to grow again. I think I aged 100 years ;)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c4...ingchimney.jpg

The smell of the smoke lingers for months and the only way of eradicating it sadly, is to start from scratch. Strip everything off and rebuild/redecorate.
....................I wish I could be more positive.

On non electrical items you can use diluted oven cleaner, you need to be careful of what it is made from because a lot of these oven cleaners are caustic based so will dissolve aluminium.

I bought an Everest conservatory from a house that had a fire in the kitchen, the insurance company were going to skip it and fit a new one :eek:. I disassembled it cleaned everything in diluted oven cleaner. Once I put a base in at my house and built a dwarf wall I reassembled it.

Phil, thanks for reply. Your loss from fire the fire above is greater than mine.

I can't even begin to work out exactly what I will likely to be binning. Some of it has been stored in there for many years, sometimes only seeing the light of day once a year or less. You know how it can be with tools.

It's going to be a long process sorting this out without calling in professionals who will no doubt charge a chunk of money.

I think I read that someone had used "Oxy" type kitchen/bathroom cleaners on some items, perhaps that has the same effect.