Document Restoration Services

11/23/2018 (Permalink)

The Document Freeze Drying Chamber at SERVPRO Corporate in Gallatin, TN.

Think about all the important documents at your home, or hospital, law office, government building, home or any other job where a water loss has occurred. There are countless documents that can be affected by a loss. Jobs could be as small as precious family keepsakes such as a bible or photo albums, to an entire hospital's medical documents.

Who is going to take care of those documents?

Document Restoration Services are now available to all customers through the facilities and a drying chamber housed at SERVPRO Corporate.

How does it work?
Our team, along with the help of the Document Restoration team, will inventory the documents at the site of the loss, pack them up, then ship them to our corporate office. In some cases, cold storage or refrigerated trucks may be used. Once documents arrive, the boxes will be inventoried, placed in cold storage if necessary and the drying process will begin.

The Document Restoration Team uses sublimation—turning a solid directly into a vapor, skipping the liquid stage to avoid causing more damage to the documents. This process can recover even the most delicate items—from documents to photographs and x-rays, to entire business archives. Depending on the type of job, documents can also be decontaminated, cleaned, deodorized, and even digitized. 

Services

Cleaning

The Document Restoration Team will go through each box page by page to wipe down and remove dirt, soot, or other contaminants. 
There are 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 customer's file room was damaged by water or smoke and needs to be cleaned, dried or decontaminated, digitizing might be a good choice to eliminate the need to have hundreds or even thousands of documents and records in their storage.

Gamma Irradiation

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

In a CAT 3 situation (sewage or flood water), documents are not only deteriorating but are also infected with all types of bacteria. In most storm situations, you are dealing with CAT 3 water; therefore, most of the affected documents you encounter will be contaminated. 

If this is the case, decontamination is always a must. 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.

Certified Destruction

Unfortunately, many businesses and government agencies have to dispose of counterfeit, faulty, expired or contaminated materials. All entities need to be certified that their products and materials are destroyed. The guarantee of certified destruction is to protect one's liabilities, brand image or proprietary information. 

Conclusion:

• Vacuum freeze drying is the most efficient and effective way to salvage water-damaged documents.
• SERVPRO's technicians are trained to use the most advanced technology available for document recovery and drying; in fact, the Document Restoration Team uses the same technique the Library of Congress uses to dry water-damaged books. 
• All employees of the Document Restoration Team are HIPAA Master certified and once your items arrive at the SERVPRO facility, 24/7 video surveillance is guaranteed.