How to Restore Water Damaged Documents

There are many different techniques for restoring water damaged documents. They will be discussed here, also with links provided to professionals who can do the job for you. No general instructions can take the place of an assessment given by a qualified, experienced library or archive specialist. It is strongly recommended that such assistance and advice be sought at the earliest moment after a disastrous event has occurred for those documents of utmost importance.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Vacuum chambers for drying large quantities of books and paper records have become the almost common approach. Depending on the cellulosic materials being dried, vacuum drying or vacuum freeze-drying should be performed first.
2. More palpable documents should be vacuum freeze-dried (perhaps a shop vac and freezer for an at home solution).
3. Other documents may be simply vacuum dried (perhaps by a weak hand-held Dust Buster vacuum for an at home solution).

Tips & Warnings

• Always consult a professional for the utmost important documents, or if you have any inhibitions about these processes