My parents are both lawyers and often take work home with them. They have an office set up in our basement. Hence, there are a lot of legal documents stored there. As it happens from time to time in Washington, following a major rain, the basement flooded. In addition to losing a lot of furniture and office equipment, they were concerned about water damaged legal documents and how to restore or save as many of the documents as possible without violating confidentiality laws. After a quick search they were able to find a company that offers document freeze drying services.



Their primary concern was that the documents, because of its legal nature, should remain highly confidential. The document freeze drying company happens to be local and relatively small and they were fortunate enough to work directly with the owner who assured them both that no one would lay eyes on their documents aside from him. He did the process of document freeze drying by himself to make good on his promise.

I don't know then how bigger companies work on document freeze drying with regards to confidentiality, because my experience is limited with that of a small company my parents hired. Now, I realize that every company I looked in to guarantees that confidential papers will be kept private when document freeze drying process is facilitated.

Document freeze drying restores documents by freezing the moisture out of the document and then heating it back up to normal room temperature. Occasionally the documents will be sheathed and photo copied first to ensure you have copies of what you need. There are times though, as in my parents' case, when photocopies could not be made. They needed only the originals. Fortunately, they were well taken care of by the document freeze drying company they employed and were able to get all of their originals restored for a reasonable amount of $300.

I don't know if the price is the same with bigger companies but I think the amount they paid was worth it because the documents were back in readable shape no information seemed to leak. It took one major flood for them to realize that they need to be extra careful handling and storing these documents. They now leave the originals at the office where a safe is available for worry-free storage and only bring photocopies home.

After the flood and their experience with document freeze drying, I researched other options in the event that they had to go through the process again. I got curious about the entire process. Later I found out that bigger companies offer a comparable price on document freeze drying services and most of them would be glad to offer confidentiality protection.

In case a similar event happens to you, at least you are informed that there are options to save your important documents and a whole lot more of options in choosing a company that would offer document freeze drying in strict confidence.