Fabric and Textile Preservation

Taking care of fabric and textile preservation after your house has been flooded or you’ve had a house fire is often just one more thing to overwhelm you. With all the things you have to do, like sorting through your items, making lists for insurance companies, and dealing with the sense of loss, your time is very limited. How do you know where to begin, or what you should even do? Other than rounding up a big pile of clothes, linens, and other items, and tossing what is obviously ruined, the next steps can be easily performed right here at Prestige Custom Cleaners.
Let us walk you through the big things you need to know for flood and fire damage.
Fire Damage: Soot and Smoke
If you’ve had a fire, then your fabric and textile preservation chores are going to be two-fold. First, you have to get rid of the smell of smoke in your garments, which can overpower them to the point that you can’t even have them in your home. Smoke from a house fire is a very strong smell that permeates everything. This may require professional-grade dry cleaning.
The second thing you need to do is get rid of soot stains, which are trickier than you think. Soot affects all materials differently. If you have basic cotton fabrics, you may be able to simply wash them. But if you have expensive silk or cashmere clothing, it’s probably best to take your items to a professional. We have been working with fabric and textile preservation for decades, and understand each type of fabric intimately. We’ll be able to properly clean soot off of any type of fabric that can be saved.
Flood Damage: Drying and Ventilating
Flood damage is a difficult thing to combat, because often the affects don’t show up till later. Of course the first thing you have to do is ensure that all your fabric and textiles are completely dry. Commercial drying machines like those found in a Laundromat or dry cleaners would be best, but you can also rely on time and sunshine to do this part.
Ventilation is a little harder. When fabrics get wet, they become the perfect breeding ground for mildew and mold. You need to be sure that your fabric items are placed where air can circulate around them fully, and you may also need to run a dehumidifier to draw the moisture out of the air and prevent organic growth. It’s important that you do not seal your flood-damaged fabrics in any sort of bag or plastic, because that can speed the growth of mold.
While some items may have to be thrown out after a fire or a flood, you’d be surprised what you can salvage. If you choose to allow us to help you take care of this overwhelming task, we will probably be able to save quite a lot of the things you thought you’d lost for good. Our in-house processes for removing the damage of soot, the smell of smoke and ventilating your items, mean that you’ll be able to focus on other things while we help get your life back on track. We utilize all of our understanding of fabric and textile preservation to ensure that your items are good as new.