Restoring Your Books After Water Damage

3/10/2020 (Permalink)

When water enters your home and destroys your belongings, it can be an overwhelming experience.  SERVPRO of Cecil County understands how difficult it can be to throw your damaged contents away.  What some people may not know is that you can still save some of your damaged content after it has been severely damaged. Our cleaning and restoration professionals not only help to clean and restore your home from fire, water or mold damage, we also can pack up, store, clean and restore some of the items damaged after these types of disasters. 

While there are times we can save your items for you, other times the damage is too extensive to restore them.  But, there are also steps you can take as well to save even your paper products, such as books.

If your books aren’t heavily wet, simple air-drying can be the solution.  Wet paper tears easily so be careful when handling.  When air-drying, do not open the books.  Place them standing up on absorbent paper to allow the water to drain out. Place paper between the text and covers and change the papers as they become fully wet.  Use fans to circulate air but do not point them directly at the books.  Continue this technique until the items do not appear to be soaked.

Freeze drying is the best option for preventing damage and mold growth.  SERVPRO uses the process of sublimation which skips the liquid stage to turn a solid right into a vapor to avoid causing more damage to your documents.  We also use the method of gamma irradiation when needed to clean and disinfect documents that are infected by bacteria from contaminated water.

Whether you are able to air-dry your books or they need a more specialized process by our professionals in order to be restored, these techniques will help to save your books and other documents after water damage has occurred in your home.  SERVPRO of Cecil County is also happy to help restore your property and your belongings after smoke and soot damage.  We work hard to make every form of an unexpected disaster “Like it never even happened.”