Warehouse burned... Antique table has a touch of heat damage, but not serious. The piece still has a horrible smoke smell. How does one remove fire-smoke smell? Refinishing top and legs may eliminate/ prevent smell from there, but no finish on the underside surface. Bleach? Vinegar? Other? Combination of products?
Sonny
Sonny; Try some of the citrus cleaners available. I have used Orange Blast and after a couple of cleanings the smoke smell disappears. I would test the cleaner on the finish first, these cleaners may soften the finish at full strength.
Good luck
Couple coats of shellac will seal in what you can't clean.
Warehouse burned... Antique table has a touch of heat damage, but not serious. The piece still has a horrible smoke smell. How does one remove fire-smoke smell? Refinishing top and legs may eliminate/ prevent smell from there, but no finish on the underside surface. Bleach? Vinegar? Other? Combination of products?
Sonny
Clean it as best as you can with citrus and other household cleaners. Several cleanings may be necessary to get as much of the soot and smell off as you can. This will remove 95% or more of the smell. If the outside isn't damaged, then I wouldn't do anything else to those areas. With a coat of good furniture polish you should be ready to go. The inside and underside areas should also be cleaned as much as possible, but those areas are not finished as well if at all, so they will have absorbed more of the smoke and it's nearly impossible clean them to totally remove the smell from these areas, but you can seal in the smell with one or more coats of shellac. Shellac is the preferred method used to seal in the fire smell when professionals are repairing fire damage in structures. They spray it on all of the burned/charred surfaces that won't be replaced during the renovation.
I have an octagon shaped heavy pine table that my wife had seen in a furniture store and wanted very badly. Before we could get back to the store to buy it the store had a big fire that burned most of the second story (where the table had been). After the fire and insurance settlement, the owner held a fire sale (in a tent outside) and we found the table in his sale. It was covered with soot and the top had gobs of melted plastic lamp shade stuck to it, but the table hadn't actually burned. I bought it for $30 (originally $350) thinking that I would clean it up and maybe refinish the top. If I failed, it wouldn't be much of a loss, so it was worth the gamble.
Well, after doing what I explained above and then chipping the plastic globs off of of it, I lightly steel wooled the top. I was able to remove all of the melted lamp shade and other marks without cutting through the finish enough to damage the stain. So I put 2 coats of polyurethane on the top, the shellac on the inside, and that table has now been in my family room for 34 years with no signs (or smells) of the fire that it had been in.
Thanks everyone. There is a noted antique collector/dealer whose one of 3 warehouses burned 3-4 months ago. She often visits our upholstery class .... I'm taking upholstery classes at the local Tech school. Wednesday, She informed the class to go salvage whatever we wanted, before the demolition crew destroyed it. I was the only student with a truck (2 actually, old and new one). We went and loaded up both trucks.... several trips. We all got some great pieces, nothing really burned...just smoke stained/saturated and smelly. Most pieces had fabric, but reupholstering is not a problem.
The smoke smelled table in question is for another student. I was not knowledgeable, so I was tryin to help her solve the problem. I'm sure I may need the info, also, for my pieces. Thanks very much.
Sonny
first clean with a degreaser. then after it dries any film based finish will seal in the smell. but you must use the degreaser not just a cleaner(21 years in the fire restoration business)
Thanks, Leonard. Very much appreciated.
Sonny
My first house 15 years ago was a fire damaged house. There are some places that you can just not clean in a fire damaged house. Like inside cupboard, bottoms of sinks etc.
For smoke damage TIME and Fresh air cures all pretty quickly.
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