Floods and water damage

Recovery and saving of documents, archives and libraries

Water is another element that can cause considerable damage to documentary and paper material with effects that can last over time even when the emergency is over.

This type of emergency does not occur only in cases of serious hydrogeological catastrophes such as floods or tsunamis, but much more often in the case of “mini disasters” such as infiltrations, broken pipes mainly due to poor maintenance of the storage rooms.

A flood that affects archives, libraries and conservation environments in general, exposes the contents and container to damage in the short, medium and long term.

Prodoc has specialized personnel and cutting-edge technological tools for handling, securing and restoring archives, documents and parchments damaged by floods, floods and mud.

Prodoc machines allow the treatment of large quantities of wet paper material.

Intervention methods

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Intervention request form

Recovery of documents in case of flooding: intervention methods

For large quantities of wet documents:

We evaluate the intervention and rescue priorities
We immediately recover and dry documents of immediate use through the most technologically advanced freeze drying implant in Italy
We organize non-urgent documents for freezing
After the drying process, papers are subjected to disinfection and disinfestation to prevent the development of mold or parasites
If necessary, the documents are smoothed, reconditioned and housed in folders with a neutral ph

For small quantities of wet documents:

We subject it to immediate drying through the freeze-drying system
After the drying process, papers are subjected to disinfection and disinfestation to prevent the development of mold or parasites
If necessary, the documents are smoothed, reconditioned and housed in folders with a neutral ph

Wet books, what happens?

Flooded documents or wet books?

The first 48 hours are crucial

Here’s what happens to paper material when it comes in contact with water. Timely intervention is essential to stop weed processes and chemical and mechanical damage

Weight and volume gain

The materials that make up the books and archival documents are hygroscopic and thermolabile: when attacked by water they increase in weight and volume. Ancient books up to 80%, modern books up to 60%.

Differentiated reactions

The various types of material react differently to water and humidity: the leather of the covers shrinks and darkens while the papers usually increase in volume.

Chemical and biological damage

As a result of the action of water, the damage is of a chemical type, therefore washing away of inks and stamps, and compacting of the papers, especially the coated ones. Biological damage is linked to the attack of materials by microorganisms.

Mechanical damage

To the chemical and biological damages it is necessary to add the possible mechanical damages deriving from the falling of the volumes from the boxes.

The work process in emergency situations

We receive the alarm following a claim:

Our emergency number is active 24/7.

We immediately activate our emergency teams:

On the site of the accident we activate all the procedures useful to secure the damaged goods and to avoid any worsening of the damage occurred on them.

We prepare the damaged material for restoration:

After an assessment of the accident carried out by expert restorers, we examine together with the customer the best activities to undertake to prepare the material for the restoration operations.