Found after days or weeks
Unattended death cleanup in Yonkers
When a person dies alone and is not found quickly, the room changes. The smell is the part everyone notices. The part that matters is what has soaked into the floor underneath. This is specialist work, and you do not need to see the room to arrange it.
Phone answered at every hour, weekends and holidays included
From the discovery to the cleanup
Police, then the medical examiner
An unattended death is one the Westchester County Medical Examiner must be told about, and the local police have to be notified too. Call 911 and wait outside the apartment.
The person is taken into the examiner's care
Investigators decide whether an examination is needed. When it is finished, the office releases the person straight to the funeral home the family has chosen.
Close the home up
Shut the windows of that room, turn off any fan or air conditioner that moves air through it, and lock the door. Opening everything wide spreads the smell into the hallway and the neighbors' homes.
Arrange the cleanup by phone
Call (914) 979-7472. Tell the company which floor the apartment is on, whether there is an elevator, and roughly how long it was. They can usually take the keys from a super or a relative.
Why it is more than cleaning
Fluids travel downwards. Under a bed or a chair they pass through carpet and padding into the subfloor, and in an apartment building they can reach the ceiling of the unit below. The company follows them as far as they went, which can mean lifting boards.
Soft things nearby hold the odor: the mattress, upholstered furniture, curtains, sometimes clothes in an open closet. Most cannot be saved. Papers, photographs and jewellery usually can, and you should say what matters to you before the company starts.
Deodorizing comes last, after the source is out. Sprays and scented products used first only delay it.
Three things particular to older buildings here
Old floor tile
The state labour department treats 9-inch floor tiles and white pipe wrap as likely to contain asbestos. If a floor has to come up, ask the company how it will check first. The department recommends licensed asbestos contractors for removal.
Paint from before 1978
Cutting out painted plaster or trim in a building of that age falls under the federal lead-safe renovation rule, which applies to anyone paid to disturb the paint.
The building itself
In a co-op, condo or rental, tell the managing agent or the super the same day. They control the elevator, the hallway and access to the apartment below.
Questions families ask
Can we go in to collect a few things first?
It is safer not to. Tell the cleanup company what you are looking for and where it is likely to be. They can bring it out, cleaned if it can be cleaned.
There is no family nearby. Who arranges this?
Whoever is handling the estate, or the landlord if the home is rented. If nobody can afford a funeral, the medical examiner's office suggests asking a funeral home about options or phoning the Westchester County Public Administrator on 914-995-3700.
Will the smell come back?
It should not once everything that absorbed fluid has been removed. Ask the company what it does if an odor returns after a few warm days, and get the answer in writing.
Once the police hand the home back, phone
The person who answers works for an independent cleanup firm active in and around Yonkers. Put any question to them. Whether to hire them is up to you.
Phone answered at every hour, weekends and holidays included
Calls can be recorded. How that works: privacy, and how this service is paid.