Railfan Technology > Salvaging wet books...questions?

Unfortunately, due to the simultaneous failure of BOTH the sump pump and the pump in the ejector pit for the laundry, I had a small flood in the basement, about 6 inches of clear water (no sewage, thank God). It was just deep enough to touch the boxes of books I had stored on an elevated platform (trying to prevent this very problem). This caused the books to wick water up into the page ends.

More than a few of these books can likely be replaced via eBay, swap meets, etc, but there are a couple that are quite rare and difficult to find. I've got my cleanup guy pricing the freeze-dry process libraries use to recover rare boks, but fear this might be cost-prohibitive.

I got a couple dried out yesterday and they seem to be only slightly worse for the wear, other than the pages have become quite wrinkly. It has been suggested I could use an iron to flatten the pages back out again. I've recovered plain paper documents this way in the past but never coated ("slick") paper. Has anyone done this with coated paper and was it successful?

I'm going to try to get the 3 or 4 most important books freeze-dried, but I can't afford to do the whole collection, which is well over 150 titles.

Open to any ideas you might have.

NZ

Check with your local library. They can probably put you in touch with professionals in this area.

The Northeast Document Center has all of its preservation leaflets on line at https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/overview.

Following are links to specific leaflets that may be helpful:

https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/3.-emergency-management/3.6-emergency-salvage-of-wet-books-and-records

https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/3.-emergency-management/3.12-freezing-and-drying-wet-books-and-records

OK to PM me if I can be of more assistance.

OCV

Thanks for the replies. After talking to the local restoration company, the freeze-dry process is only marginally effective on coated paper and I'm looking at roughly $150 per book with no guarantee it will work.

The 5 or 6 titles that I'm least likely to find replacements for have been bagged and put in the home freezer, where they will keep until I decide to restore or throw out. Meanwhile, the search is on in all the usual places. Fortunately the appliances (except the washer) survived so maybe a little more $$ available for replacements (which will live UPSTAIRS from now on...never dealing with this again!)

NZ

NebraskaZephyr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Meanwhile, the search is
> on in all the usual places.

If it isn't on the usual places list, it should be: http://used.addall.com/

It is always the first place I look. That auction site is after that.

TAW

Thanks, TAW!

NZ

Dad had a burst water-pipe in his basement and the sump pump couldn't keep up.  They came home from a concert and found the un-finished half of the basement with a solid inch of water.  I came home from school to help clean it up.  In the almost 40 years now they've owned the house, this was the only water incident they've had.  Everything stored on the floor is now kept in plastic totes with items stacked on top in regular boxes.

I've had some water in my basement thanks to power outages (and I work for the power company!) but I've learned from Dad and keep everything I don't want wet in plastic totes.

Good luck on your restorations.

Erik

I had a similar experience with washer flooding.  Fortunately it was only about a half inch to inch of water.  I've also had snow melt leak in in really wet years.  Anything I keep on the actual floor in the basement is in plastic totes, especially papers of importance and my Dad's record collection.  If you don't already own one, you may want to consider purchasing a wet/dry shop vac.  You can vac out quite a bit of water if you're at home when flooding happens and you notice it before it rises enough to soak stuff.  I used mine back in November when the hose that dirty water leaves the washer by apparently vibrated and slipped out of the drain pipe.  I had a full load of rinse water about an inch deep in most areas on the floor.  The vac saved items in boxes stored up some off the floor and saved me money since I didn't have to call any professional restoration co.  Good luck on drying out your books and I second the above comments about contacting the library.  --Mary in Whitefish,MT--