Tips to Save Water Damaged Photos in Ortega

7/9/2021 (Permalink)

SERVPRO is here to help with water damage of any level. Our technicians know all the steps to take to bring back your belongings after water strikes.

Ortega Water Damaged Photographs May Be Preserved By SERVPRO

When water damage strikes and homes are forced to submit to its destructive power, it is rarely material possessions that people fear losing the most. Instead, they worry about the water damage done to sentimental items, particularly family mementos and photographs.

While it is not always possible to save water damaged photos, scrapbooks, albums, and other personal records, in many cases, steps can be taken to restore them partially, if not entirely. If your possessions have been damaged by water in your Ortega home, follow this step-by-step process to try and recover treasured memories.

Water Damage Restoration for Photos

Step One: The first step is to remove the photographs from standing water as carefully as possible and place them high. If they are held in albums, they need to be separated and laid out somewhere dry. Take care when handling the shiny surface of the photo, as too much pressure can rub away the emulsion.

Step Two: Take a sturdy container filled with cold, clean water and quickly dip each photograph. Replenish the water if it gets dirty or murky.

Step Three: Now, lay each photo out flat again on a dry surface. It can be beneficial to set an absorbent material beneath them (like paper towels) too. These towels can soak up the surface water. However, do not use printed paper towels or newspapers because the ink can transfer into the pictures.

Step Four: Those who are still dealing with a chaotic situation cannot find a safe place to dry the photos; the best thing to do is seal them in a plastic sandwich bag and put them in a freezer. This ensures that they do not suffer further damage before you have a chance to dry them in a controlled manner. Use this as a last resort. Consider allowing SERVPRO to remove your photos and personal memorabilia to our facilities where we have state-of-the-art equipment.

Extra Hints and Tips: If possible, retrieve photos exposed to water damage as quickly as you can (ideally, within two days--but within hours can improve the chance of success.) After this point, they can begin to develop mold and be much harder to save.

To give yourself as much chance of saving prized mementos as possible, rescue photographs that do not have negatives first. You want to be focusing on the most 'at risk' items and objects. Do remember that photographs in frames need to be removed for saving while still wet. If you allow them to start drying, the photo can stick to the frame and be impossible to preserve. To separate a wet photo from its frame, rinse both with clean, cold water until the picture surface starts to become unstuck.

Hopefully, you have digitized your photos and video clips. Regardless, hard copies are treasures to be saved whenever possible. SERVPRO suggests that you secure our services for photographs and important documents to transport them back to our headquarters from your water damaged home. There we have many options to optimize the success rate of restoring, or, at least, preserving them, as best as is possible.

• Dehumidification 
• Air Drying
• Vacuum Freeze Drying
• Vacuum Thermal Drying
• Freezer Drying

Urgent response to drying can help save these mementos. Don't wait. As SERVPRO of Stockton restores a water damaged home, we can also be working on the photos. Just call (209) 477-3090.