Before

After

SERVPRO Finds a Way!

After a huge fire ravaged a Wichita, KS home it left a stinky greasy black residue on every wall, counter, piece of furniture and decoration. After a fire some pieces can be replaced but other pieces are unique and have intense sentimental value. For our customer this piece (along with others in the set) was a source of bonding between him and a very quite grandson who only opened up to talk about dinosaurs. Our customer bought this at a flea market and had no idea how to replace it. When they shared this with us we knew that we had to prioritize saving it but what a photo can't show you is odor, and this little dino stunk! 

The difficulties with a piece like this is the soot residue is very difficult to get off but using too strong a process could destroy the piece. Another difficulty is all the crevices formed by the cracked egg shell and scales all over piece where soot residue could hide. Leaving soot behind in those crevices would cause the strong smoke odor to linger but more importantly posed a health risk (especially since a small child was likely to handle it). We experimented with different methods until we arrived at one which removed the soot and odor without damaging this piece. After that it was a lot of meticulous detailed cleaning.

When restoring contents, especially artisanal and artistic works, there is never a guarantee that you will be able to save the piece. In this case we were ecstatic that this lil' dino escaped extinction.