After wildfire smoke: cleaning soft goods and ducts
Smoke particulate settles in carpet, sofas and ductwork. Here is the order to clean it.
Puget Sound now gets a smoke season most years. When it clears, the smell lingers indoors because fine particulate settled into every soft surface and into the HVAC system, and the smell releases every time the furnace runs or someone sits on the couch.
The order
Change the furnace filter first. Then clean the ducts and blower, which are re-distributing the ash. Then carpet, upholstery, mattresses and drapes, which absorbed the most smoke. Doing the soft goods first and the ducts second just re-coats the clean carpet.
Carpet and upholstery
Hot water extraction removes smoke particulate and the oily residue that carries the smell. A deodorizing rinse helps. Wool and natural fibers hold smoke odor hardest and need an extra pass.
Ducts
If the windows were open at all during the smoke, the ducts got ash. A negative-air cleaning with the blower and coil included, then a MERV 13 filter, is the fix.
Need it handled?
Negative-air duct cleaning of the whole system, trunk lines included, with the furnace blower and coil cleaned too. Air Duct Cleaning · (206) 434-0779
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