How to Properly Dry Important Documents After Water Damage

6/26/2022 (Permalink)

Wet documents can be salvaged with the help of water damage restoration experts.

How to Dry Important Documents Properly After Water Damage

Water damage can hit businesses hard. Not only can it require repairs to the building, but also poses issues if important documents seep in moisture. Luckily, wet documents can be salvaged with the help of water damage restoration experts. Here are a few techniques the document drying process consists of in the event your Baton Rouge, LA, business be impacted by water.

1. Freezing Wet Documents
After any flooding event, locate any wet papers of value and get them to a freezer. Taking swift action here will prevent the growth of mold and stop rapid deterioration of the paper. Once you have the document frozen, restoration experts can transport them to a facility with state-of-the-art technology that allows these items to be restored to their prior condition. A specialized vaccuum-dry freezer is used to draw out any moisture from the paper, a method which is commonly used for restoring some museum archive items.

2. Gamma Irradiation
Depending on how much moisture an item retained and the contamination level of the water it had contact with, it's a possibility that molding or bacterial growth has occurred. To alleviate this, experts rely on a process known as gamma irradiation. This entails using powerful radiation to destroy any microorganisms and sterilize the item at hand.

3. Digitize Documents
With proper freezing and radiation, most items plagued by water damage can be restored. But to provide extra peace of mind, digital copies of impacted documents are often created. This gives relief to many business owners who don't have to compromise their documentation again in the event of future water or fire damage.
While it may seem that any papers that get caught in water are a lost cause, wet documents can be dried and saved. Immediate freezing helps preserve them before undergoing gamma irradiation and digitizing to complete the restoration process.