Our files are ruined ..... Document Recovery after a Disaster!!!!
3/31/2016 (Permalink)
When an event occurs at your place of business or document storage facility there must be a plan in place to recover your documents, SERVPRO of Southern Scioto and Lawrence Counties has your answer. As part of our restoration process we have the means and a process by which we can save your documents.
Documents can be damaged in many different ways from smoke, to water, to water that is contaminated with bacteria and each of these has a different method for recovery.
We follow these steps to ensure the best recovery possible.
Inventory
We barcode every box using the iCat system, allowing us to know the location of any box in our facility at any time.
All Documents will be inventoried at the location of the loss prior to packaging.
Drying
Process in which an item containing moisture is frozen and dried using various vacuums and pressures to achieve sublimation.
Decontamination / Gamma
High-energy photons are emitted from an isotope source (Cobalt 60) producing ionization (electron disruptions) throughout a product. 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.
Gamma Irradiation is a process that is 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. As you all know in most storm situations you are dealing with CAT 3 water, therefore most of the affected documents that you will encounter will be contaminated; if this is the case than de-contamination is always a must.
Cleaning
We will go through each box page by page to wipe down and remove dirt, soot, or other contaminants.
We have 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 file room was damaged by water, or smoke, and needed to be cleaned, dried, or decontaminated, digitizing might be a good choice to eliminate the need to have 100’s or even 1000’s of documents and records in storage.
Certified Destruction
Often times facilities will still have documents they no longer need to hold on to and would simply like to have them disposed of properly.
As you can see we are very thourgh in our process which can give you some relief during a very trying time. It is our desire to make it "Like it never even happened."