It is devastating when houses are damaged by flooding whether by a natural disaster or a broken pipe. One of the most upsetting after effects of a flood is the damage done to the documents and books in your Orlando house. These can be very important items such as passports and birth certificates. Some people have a collection of books that is very valuable as well. It is important to know how to dry these items out after they get wet.



If books and documents are damaged by floodwaters they will need to be sanitized. You should do this carefully, wiping them with a water and rubbing alcohol solution to kill germs that may have contaminated the papers. Clean the covers of the books in this manner as well. After the documents and books have been cleaned put talcum powder, cornstarch or absorbent paper like blotting paper or newsprint between the pages of the book or document. This will help absorb the moisture out of the wet pages. Set the Orlando books and documents aside to dry.

Air-drying is the easiest method to employ to dry out books and documents. In FLorida this method may not work well when drying extremely wet documents. It works well on books that are only damp. Take the documents and lay them out around a room that is dry and has as little humidity as possible. Do this as fast as possible because the longer the documents stay wet the more likely it is that they could develop mold. If mold gets a hold on these documents they will not be salvageable. Let the papers air dry. When the books are almost dry, a weight should be applied to them to help reduce the wrinkling of pages and bending of the covers.

When there is a large amount of water damage to books and documents as well, for a larger quantity of these documents that have been affected, dehumidification is a better solution to the problem. Prepare the water-damaged items the same as listed above and arrange them on a flat surface in a room that has a dehumidifier running. A Orlando dehumidifier takes the moisture out of the air and as this happens, the water from the wet documents leave as well. Again, apply a weight to the almost dry hardcover books to keep the covers in good shape and the pages from wrinkling.

If there is a very large volume of water damaged documents and books they can be dried in phases. The wet documents and books can be stored in plastic bags and frozen. Freezing thwarts any continued damage to the books and documents and keeps mold from growing on them as well. The books and documents that were damaged can then be taken out of the freezer and dealt with as time permits.

If you have a document that needs to be dried up quickly you can iron it using an electric iron on a low setting. If your water documents are very rare or valuable take them to a Orlando professional for restoration. DOn't even think about doing it yourself unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure you can handle thsi task.