One of the most daunting things we might have to come across from time to time is having our precious documents get wet and severly by exposure to water. The water or liquid exposure to the paper documents could have taken place in any known form, leading from leaking pipelines to rain and floods; anything could be possible in damaging a document. At the same time it may be possible to get back the damaged document to its original form, if we act soon enough; the lesser the time taken to initialize the document drying process the better.



There are certain things that you should always do while considering the document drying process and could be put down as follows:

1. Whenever a document is exposed to water or gets wet, try to handle it according to its condition, as it may be very vulnerable at that point and our slightest complacency in the matter could ruin it completely. When a document, as for a book, has come in contact with water try to hold it by its sides and not its spine. The amount of pressure to be applied, while handling the document, should be very gentle or else have adverse effects.

2. If possible the documents should be put up for document drying techniques within two days time or else there would be chances of mold formation. On top of this if the document was folded up in leather folders or any other substances then they must be carefully separated before proceeding with document drying.

3. The basic form of document drying is to freeze it as early as possible and proceed once the structure is safe to handle. Freeze drying techniques have often been used for document drying purposes, at the laboratory of the National Archives and Records Administration of US. The method could be deemed successful only with certain limitations; with documents that are made of different materials, the expansion rate is not uniform, after coming in contact with water. This may lead to deformations and in spite of it being recovered its restoration may not be possible.

4. Once these things are taken care of, it should be carefully noted for mold growths, as it may damage the document in the long run, by rotting the pages slowly but gradually; it even furthers the smearing of the ink. The process is known as mold remediation and is highly effective to sort out a problem like mold growth.

5. Even if the structure may be frozen, the interior of document may still hold onto certain amount of moisture, which allows the pages to get stuck to one another. These pages are carefully separated by advanced page separation techniques that due not hamper the contents in the page. Each individual page is taken care of like this and dried in the process.

Other than these careful steps, a person must always keep in mind to keep the places, where they keep their document, well aired. This would prevent any humid conditions and restrict growth of molds at the same time. Furthermore, any chances leading to the possibility of water damage should be dealt at once, as it would cut down the necessity of document drying along with it.