Document Drying - Post Storm Damage

6/21/2018 (Permalink)

Concerned that your documents may be lost forever after a major storm? Have no fear! Here at SERVPRO of The Attleboros, we have state-of-the-art technology that can restore your damaged documents after a storm!

Inventory

We bar-code every box using the iCat system, allowing us to know the location of any box in our facility at any time. All documents are inventoried at the location of the loss prior to packaging.

Drying

Process in which an item containing moisture is frozen and dried using various vacuums and pressures to achieve sublimation.

Decontamination/Gamma

High-energy photons are emitted from an isotope source (Cobalt 60) producing ionization (electron disruptions) throughout a product. In living cells, these disruptions result in damage to the DNA and other cellular structures. These photon-induced changes at the molecular level cause the death of the organism or render the organism incapable of reproduction. The gamma process does not create residuals or impart radioactivity in processed products.

Gamma Irradiation is a process that is used for cleaning/disinfecting and decontaminating documents or other consumer goods.

In a Category 3 situation (sewage or flood water), documents are not only deteriorating but are also infected with all types of bacteria. As you all know in most storm situations you are dealing with CAT 3 water, therefore most of the affected documents that you will encounter will be contaminated; if this is the case than de-contamination is always a must.

Cleaning

We will go through each box page by page to wipe down and remove dirt, soot, or other contaminants. We have 3 levels of cleaning based on the type of soiling, and how heavy it is.

Deodorizing

Many times documents that have been affected will hold residual smells of contaminants, or mildew, and should be deodorized before being returned to your client.

Digitizing

With the new age of technology, digitizing records and documents has become a standard practice in most industries. This eliminates the need to have massive file storage rooms and allows us to access records at the click of a button. if your file room was damaged by water, or smoke, and needed to be cleaned, dried, or decontaminated, digitizing might be a good choice to eliminate the need to have 100's or even 1000's of documents and records in storage.

Certified Destruction

Often times facilities will have documents they no longer need to hold on to and would simply like to have them disposed of properly.