Saving Photographs and Documents as Part of the Water Damage after a Storm in Ravenswood

8/20/2018 (Permalink)

No job is too large or too small for SERVPRO when it pertains to saving important documents or images.

There’s nothing worse than realizing that a flood has inflicted water damage in your Ravenswood business to some of your most valuable objects – all of those pictures that you’ve spent your life taking, developing, and cataloging. Whether you took these pictures yourself or inherited them from family members, you absolutely need to find a way to save them. Thankfully, all hope is not lost. SERVPRO of Ravenswood can restore those photographs and other important documents.

There are multiple methods restoration experts will use in order to reverse the damage to your photographs and documents. They are:

1) Air Drying

In some cases, simple air drying will work to make your photographs look as good as new. The water damage repair experts will simply spread the items out on a clean cloth (usually one that’s acid-free and archival) that will soak up the moisture. The water damage repair experts then will let the photographs sit out in the open for several days or however long it takes, weighing them down should they begin to curl up on the edges.

2) Dehumidification

Dehumidification requires the water damage repair experts to remove all of the moisture from the air. As a part of this process, the photographs are placed in a special box, or even a room (depending on how many of them there are) and a dehumidifier is run in order to dry them out. This process works well for particularly waterlogged items.

3) Freeze Drying

Freezer drying is exactly as it sounds. SERVPRO of Ravenswood experts place the damaged documents in a very cold location, such as an actual freezer or freezer room (imagine a walk-in freezer, like the kind found in restaurants) in order to freeze all traces of moisture. In some of these cases, the mildew and debris clinging to them will freeze as well, making it easy for the water damage repair experts to brush them off simply. Before you know it, your important photographs will look great again.

4) Vacuum Freeze Drying

The vacuum freeze drying practice SERVPRO of Ravenswood experts also may use is designed to remove all of the air from the box holding the documents before cold air is pumped in. This is a bit more effective than the freezer drying technique, as it kills off the mildew and mold growing on the documents. They can’t live in a vacuum, where there’s no air. The freezing process works to immediately halt the progression of the water damage, literally “freezing” it in its tracks.

5) Vacuum Thermal Drying

As you can imagine, water damage repair experts use vacuum thermal drying, a process that involves placing the photographs in a box, removing all of the air, and then applying heat, for items that are extremely damaged by water. This is used when no other treatments will work, and when there’s little chance of the heat damaging the items further.

With all these wonderful and proved to work techniques, there is no need to worry about the storm damage your Ravenswood business may have experienced. Your local water damage cleanup experts are here to help bring your contents back to Like It Never Even Happened!

Call SERVPRO of Ravenswood at 773-878-5200 to schedule your consultation.