fire and smoke damage "help"

[thibtech]

we recently lost our home to a fire we lost 90% of a 30 year lego collection. the elements that i saved where in sterlite drawers but that room was severly smoke and water damaged. my dilema is these bricks now stink and i was wondering if any one has ever succsessfully ever removed the smoke smell from legos.\
thanks for any help

[SpaceViking]

Yikes. Sorry to hear of your loss.

With cigarette smoke smell on bricks, I wash them with soap and water, and then let them air out in an open container. it takes a few months for the smell to dissipate, but it eventually does. Not sure this will work with a house fire smell though---it may take much longer.

You might try here, too. a dilute water - hydrogen peroxide solution has been tried with some success.
http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion ... restore/p1

good luck!

[ammes7]

For other plastics I have placed the item in a plastic tub with a lid and also put charcoal (in a brown bag) into the tub, sealed it and let it sit for a week. That took the smoke smell out of another kind of plastic, not sure if it will work for Lego but its worth a shot.

Sorry for you fire, hope you and your family are alright!

[Richard J.]

Very sorry about your home and collection. As bad as that loss is, it sounds like you didn't lose any people, and that means you have the most important parts of all.

Adding a little vinegar to water and soaking the bricks is a great way to get smells out of them. I've gotten that delightful cigarette stench off used bricks before using this method. A little soap and water plus vinegar, swish the bricks around for a few minutes (let sit for an hour or so if they're really bad) and then rinse them off with warm water. That's worked for me in the past.

The smell of the vinegar itself goes away fairly quickly if you leave the bricks out to dry in an open area.