Ways To Save Wet Documents, Books, And Photographs

3/18/2023 (Permalink)

If your documents are damaged by water, give SERVPRO a call today.

If you've ever had the unfortunate experience of a leak or flood in your home, you know that it can be devastating. Part of that experience can also include your documents, books, and photographs getting soaked. The best thing to do if this happens is to try and preserve the documents as best as possible. Here are some tips on how to salvage wet documents:

Wet Documents Need Attention Quickly

If you find yourself with wet documents, the first thing to do is to act quickly. If you don't and you wait too long, the document can be lost forever.

Your next step is to put your documents in a safe place where they can dry out completely. You also want to make sure that they are completely dry before putting them back into storage or filing cabinets so that mold growth doesn't occur again later on down the road!

Don't Use Heat

The most important thing to remember when you're trying to save wet documents is that heat can damage them. Heat can also help mold grow on your documents, which will make them unreadable and unusable. It's best if you can keep the documents cool instead.

Following a water damage event in your home or business, your attention will be needed in many different places at once. If you cannot focus your attention on saving wet documents at that moment, try freezing your documents! This will prevent any further damage, such as mold growth, from ruining your documents until you have the time to attend to them.

Air Dry

Place the documents on a dry surface. This can be a countertop, or even your kitchen table if you have enough room and it's not too messy. You want to make sure that they are far away from any sources of moisture or humidity, like windows or air conditioners.

Air drying is a good way to save wet documents because it doesn't require any special equipment or chemicals, but there are some drawbacks as well.

Air drying takes time--it may take days for all of the moisture in the document(s) to evaporate out through evaporation alone! If you have a lot of documents that need to air dry, it could also take up a ton of space. It is also time-consuming, as it requires consistent attention to ensure that the documents are drying properly.

Hire SERVPRO

The best thing you can do is to hire a professional restoration company like SERVPRO of Temple & Belton as soon as possible after the event occurs. They can begin drying out items as quickly as possible.

There are several reasons why it's important to hire professionals when dealing with wet documents. They have equipment designed specifically for drying out items like books and photographs (among others). This will ensure that they're dried properly without any damage being done in the process--and will save money down the line because these items won't need replacing due to mold growth or other issues caused by improper drying methods!

Digitize Documents

If you have wet documents, SERVPRO of Temple & Belton can help digitize your documents. We can scan the documents and save them to the cloud or print a copy for you. This way, even if your original is ruined by water damage, you will still have access to it!

Take Steps Immediately to Preserve Them

If you find out that your documents are wet, take steps immediately to preserve them. The longer you wait and the more water they absorb, the more damage is done to your papers. Most importantly, start drying them right away! This will prevent mold from forming, which will ruin your documents, books, and photographs.