Yesterday a lady gave me two photo albums that were badly damaged by water and mold. How could they get this way!? They are a genealogist’s nightmare! Or perhaps any mother’s nightmare. Well, it wasn’t a raging flood. It wasn’t a mud slide or earthquake. It wasn’t the water from firemen putting out a fire. It wasn’t from a hurricane.
Water damage from a flood? No....
This magnetic photo album of children growing up, grandparents now gone, newlyweds, certificates of christening and other documents was in a cardboard box and left out on a driveway during a move when everything got wet. This damage could have totally been avoided! In my book, How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster I discuss why this is a disaster from several points of view. I can help you avoid the damage. But I can also help you save your damaged items if this unfortunate situation arises in your future. Sign up now for Free Tips and get a copy of the book.
For a copy of “How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster” click, now, onhttp://saveyourstufffromadisaster.com/productssupplies/
Great information for scrapbooking! I’ve been looking for something that talks intelligently about preservation. Thanks! I’ll sign up for your alerts.
Lucky me! I found your site by accident as I was searching for help with water damage from the floods here in Nashville. Thanks for your articles you wrote. I bookmarked it.
This is an interesting article for us in China. We have same problems. But nobody writes about how to help or is an expert like you. Thanks for sharing.
Just want to say what a great blog you got here! I’ve coming back for awhile now, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work! Great info and tips that I hand it out in our family history center (only the free download material that you said was OK!). Thumbs up, and keep it going!
Cheers
Christy,
Yes, I love it when people hand out our free info to others. I appreciate getting credit as the source! So, please pass along our contact info too. Getting others to come to the website/blog will help spread the “Save Your Stuff” word and help save irreplaceable, valuable family history.
Nice post about something I’m having problems with right now! I just stumbled upon your blog in a search and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon! From what you wrote in your different posts, I feel like I’ve got somewhere to go now with my wet scrapbooks and photo albums. Many, many thanks.
Your posts are such a great resource and I love coming back to read your updates. Do you have other websites you contribute to? I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a real expertise for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!
Thanks for the compliments Phyllis. Yes, I am an guest blogger at several other sites for organizations and I contribute articles to orgs for newsletters too. But I have other websites: a new one at http://www.freehurricaneinfo.org (hurricane season starts this week) and a website for businesses at http://www.saveyourstufffromadisaster.com
Thanks for an interesting article. I’ve got some water damage, though not as bad as the scrapbook you show in your post and on your video you have on http://www.saveyourstuffblog.com. After looking through different websites for help, I finally found something worth reading here… and some hope I can do something about my problem! I’ve downloaded some free stuff on the products page and I’m still poking around but I’ll probably get a copy of your book and thanks for sharing your expertise. I’ve signed up for the tips.
There is obviously a lot to know about this mold and water damage subject. Thanks for simplifying it for me and I think you made some good points. I’ll download your freebies and your book. Great info. Thanks.
Thanks for your mention of mold and my important family stuff. We had a scare with this last Hurricane Earl. OK! I’m listening! I’m signed up for your updates and I’ll get your book! Keep on coming with the good info. Thanks
Very much appreciated.. 🙂 thank you very much for this. Great info also on other posts for antique dealers who constantly ship things. Your suggestions and experience are much appreciated. Your publications are great too. Thanks!
Wow! Great information on mold and preserving my family history. Thanks. I’ll stay in touch and pass around your info to my club. This is important stuff… you are fabulous, great and so amazing.
Great info/ideas on mold and preserving our things. Thanks and hello from Australia.
Wow, that is some extensive water damage. The fact that personal photographs could not be restored it such a pity. A lot of times things like these should be stored in a waterproof safe to avoid extensive damage. Thanks so much for the post.
Horrible thing to happen to such a classic piece of family memorabilia. Could have so easily been avoided with the help of a digital copy or a copy in another location. Absolute nightmare for yourself because the person wasn’t proactive. I’d love to see the sort of results you got for such a damaged album.
Reggie, we did a digital copy (photo copywork) of the whole book and “photoshopped” all the important stuff that could go into a “remake.” We made priorities as to what was important and what was not. In all, it turned out really good and was a blessing to the family.
Those articles do not look like they are in good shape! Great idea writing a way to protecting those documents that are important to you and your loved ones. There are also some document recovery things you can get dont to restore documents.
Eric, there are SOME types of documents that can be treated by a wholesale disaster clean up company like Belfor. We like working with Belfor very much who calls upon our services to take care of the items that are historic and valuable. Its a wise clean up service that knows when not to touch or treat something.
I think it’s great that it is possible to restore even a few of the documents that get damaged like that. It’s just a shame when memories like these are lost because of something as simple as leaving a box out during a move.
Its so sad to see an album of memories get ruined. Its worth the effort to protect and save them. I have experience in this, unfortunately.
Hello Frndz…..
Your blog has always been a good source for me to get quality tips on blogging. Thanks once again.
by GTA Restoration | Water Damage Restoration.
http://gtarestoration.com/