WAS YOUR BUILDING AFFECTED BY A FIRE?
Have you or your business been subject to a wild or structural fire? Assess the exposure and provide evidence to help support insurance claims with this quick an easy analysis!
Why get combustion testing?
- Support an insurance claim for a structural fire and clean up:
- Was a building affected by fire? Combustion testing can prove the extent of the fire's reach to insurance companies.
- Household activities like smoking, burning candles, cooking, and home heating can create combustion particles that stick to surfaces for years if they remain uncleaned. Our analysis can help distinguish between these “background” combustion particles and exposure to a fire event.
- Victim of Wildfires
- Smoke from wildfires and agricultural fires can travel up to hundreds of miles and end up inside a structure. We can assess if this exposure is significant or not by the concentrations of combustion particles
- $21 billion has been set aside to compensate victims of the 2017-2018 Wildfire season [Catron]
- Checking the extent of general House Damage:
- Moving and see yellowed paint and smell smoke? Household activities like smoking, burning candles, cooking, and home heating can create smoke damage unrelated to Fire Exposure. Find out the possible extent of damage or support an insurance claim with a combustion test!
Combustion Particles
We can test multiple different types of material through the same analysis methods. Some of the byproducts we test for are :
Soot
is a black powdery or flaky substance consisting largely of amorphous carbon, produced by the incomplete burning of organic matter.
- Sticks to surfaces
- This material is commonly found in industrial and structure fires
Char
is the solid material that forms during the initial stage of combustion of a carbon based material.
- Partially burned material
- Testing can distinguish between different charred material
Ash
is a black powdery or flaky substance consisting largely of amorphous carbon, produced by the incomplete burning of organic matter.
- Stick's to surfaces
- This material is commonly found in industrial and structure fires
Tips on taking samples at home
Any area you're concerned about can be sampled for combustion particles with ease. Commonly tested area's include :
-
- Places with visible ghosting or smoke damage
- Places with a “Smoke Smell”
- High traffic area's like living rooms and common area's.
- Nursery's and Childcare facilities
- Healthcare, Universities, and industrial garages and factories.
If samples are being taken for Fire Exposure that they should be taken from an uncleaned surface as soon as possible after the event.
- 3M Scotch Brand Magic Tape - Matte Finish
- Zipper lock bag.
- A Sharpie
- Find the solid surface you'd like to test.
- Take a 2.5 inch piece of 3M Scotch Magic Tape
- Fold 1/2 inch of the tape in half so you have a non-sticky surface to hold.
- Place the sticky section of the tape onto the surface and press down.
- Leave the tape for a moment, and label your Ziploc bag with the following information:
- Sample Site, Sample Number, how many times the tape was applied to the surface.
- Open the bag, and turn it inside out.
- Remove the tape from the surface.
- DO NOT FOLD TAPE OVER ITSELF.
- Place the tape directly on to the inside out bag, and adhere it to the surface.
- Flip the Ziploc bag right-side in, and seal it.
- Fill out the Chain of Custody, and mail or drop off your sample /samples to the lab.
- Download Chain of Custody Here.
- Along the top of the CoC, please include your name, address, and contact information (email address
and phone number). - Circle how you’d like us to deliver your results to you (email, verbal) and if the
sample was taken from somewhere other than your address, please include that in the top right-hand
box. - Directly below, under Sample Description, please include the materials sampled (indicate clear or magic
tape) and their respective locations. - Lastly, at the bottom of the page, sign and date under “Relinquished By” (bottom of page) and put an "X" by the type of turnaround time you’d like (top, middle part of page).
If you do not sign and date the CoC it will cause delays as we cannot legally start testing without a
“Relinquished By” signature.
You Got Samples, Now What?
Sample Mailing and Delivery
Samples may be mailed or hand-delivered. A Chain of Custody (CoC) may be filled out in the lab upon your arrival or downloaded here. If a sample is mailed, a CoC must be attached with the proper information and signatures. Bulk asbestos samples should be at least 2 square inches. Each sample must be separately double-bagged in sealed Ziplocs or containers with the Chain of Custody included in your package outside of the sample bags to prevent contamination.
Mail/Drop Off Location
You may mail or deliver your package to :
37575 W Huron River,
Romulus, Michigan 48174
Did you know that ETL has Dropboxes throughout Metro Detroit?
Payment Information
Payment may be cash, check, or credit. Please make checks out to Environmental Testing & Consulting, Inc. Credit card payment may be taken over the phone. Please make a note on your CoC if you intend on using a credit card upon receiving your report.