Having your home seriously flooded is a terrible thing but homeowners are usually not overly wrought when the refrigerator or the soft furnishings are damaged beyond repair because their homeowners insurance will look after it. The loss of family mementos such as photographs, scrapbooks and the children’s early schoolwork can be devastating. When the flood water recedes and exposes the amount of water damage in Lyden, WA including piles of soggy photos, and other valuable papers, it may still not be a lost cause, it may be possible to salvage them if you follow a few simple tips.
Photos:
If you get at the task quickly, most paper based photos, negatives and slides can be cleaned and dried in the open air by following these steps.
- It is important that care be exercised when handling these photo’s; pick them from the mud carefully, remove all the photos from the albums and separate any photos that were stacked up. Attempt to stay away from the emulsion side, try not to rub or touch the photos surfaces; handle them from the edges.
- Rinse the photos under a slow running tap or in a bucket or sink of clean, cool water. If you use a bucket or sink, change the water frequently.
- Lay the photos face up on a clean piece of paper towel; do not use newspaper as the ink will transfer to the photos. Keep changing the paper every couple of hours until the photos dry. If you have the space, try and do this indoors as the direct sunlight will curl the photos quicker.
- If you have no time to go through the drying procedure due to other water damage in Lyden, WA that needs attention then rinse them to remove the mud and stack them between sheets of wax paper and place the bundles in Ziplock plastic bags. If it’s possible, freeze the bags which contain the photos, they can be defrosted later, separated from the wax paper and then cleaned and dried in accordance with the previous tip.
Try to get at this within a couple of days of the flood otherwise there is a good chance the photos will begin to mold and stick together, making saving them virtually impossible.