The Document Drying Services

Once the flood waters have receded or the smallest water puddle mopped up, a new problem begins. Water damage does not just end when the last drop had been mopped up. It can extend to the something that not anybody can notice – your documents.

When documents have been damaged water, the usual reaction is to find various ways of drying them out from fanning them to using industrial vacuums.

Currently, there are five document drying services you can choose from. This includes air drying, dehumidification, freezer drying, vacuum freeze drying, vacuum thermal drying, and Thermaline.

Air drying

It is the oldest and most convenient form of all document drying services. However, cheap it is not. With air-drying you would need to spend a lot of energy and time. And that’s not all! Air dried documents become distorted and, if the document drying is not done properly, it could cause formation of stains as well as growth of molds. This document drying technique is best suited for damp to slightly wet documents.

Dehumidification

This process, also called dessicant-drying, has proven its efficiency time and again specifically in big companies. Its advantage comes in the fact that it can be done without having to move your documents. This is especially effective in the cases of libraries and archives. However, you may need to have a number of dehumidifiers. This process is one of the document drying services that is not recommended for those with water-soluble ink.

Freezer drying

Moderately wet documents as well as leather-bound books and those with vellum bindings maybe subjected to this document drying method. It makes use of self-defrosting blast freezers capable of freezing materials very quickly. Documents may also be placed in the freezer in stacks or spread out to dry.


This particular method could take some time depending on the gravity of the damage. It is not particularly recommended for coated paper.

Vacuum thermal drying

This method uses a vacuum thermal drying chamber. Documents, either frozen or not, are placed into the chamber and are dried above 0° C. Although cost, effective, it fares no better than air-drying and freezer drying as it could still cause documents to be distorted. It is, however, very suited for un-coated papers.

Vacuum freezing

One of the two most expensive document drying services, vacuum freezing makes use of very complex machineries. It is based on the principle of sublimation wherein water is forcibly transformed into vapour without going through the liquid phase. You can expect to have your vacuum frozen documents within two weeks. Although relatively expensive, this technique produces satisfactory result compared to other document drying services.

Thermaline or Cryogenic Drying

Although still under revision stage, this copyrighted name for a relatively new technique answers the difficulty of drying large numbers of rare leather-bound or vellum-bound books. It can be quite expensive but can give the same, if not better, satisfactory result as the Vacuum Freezing method. Documents with water-soluble ink as well as coated papers can be dried using this technique. It uses advanced technology combined as well as a variation of the Freezer Drying technique.

Knowledge of the different document drying services can help you decide what the most suitable answer to your water damage problem is. Keep in mind, however, that no matter how much you know about the different techniques, nothing beats quick response and getting in touch with professionals who can give dependable document drying services.