Re: Leaky roof

["Karen Brown" <kebrown@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Eleanor:  I feel strongly that you are doing very well with respect to
preventing damage to your collections from your leaky roof.  I do have a
few suggestions, which I hope you find useful.

1)  You may wish to place water alarms in areas where you may have leakage.
 This will alert you to uncontrolled water even when no one is around.  One
company whom you could contact for surface water detectors is 

Dorlen Products
6615 West Layton Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53220
Toll Free: (800) 533-6392
Telephone: (414) 282-4840
Fax: (414) 282-5670
www.wateralert.com

2) It seems to me, even when you have "leaky in a random way" water
problems, that the best course of action is to move the books our of harms
way wherever possible.  You will have to do this during
construction/renovation anyway, so you might want to start looking for
other places to put your books.

3) For wet or moldy ceiling panels, etc., I think you would be best to
remove them/discard them, to avoid possible health problems.  Although
there seems little point in replacing them if they are only going to be
damaged again, and you do not want to trap moisture, you may want to
replace the ceiling/wall panels with corrugated paperboard.  It is stiff,
easily cut to fit, inexpensive, and absorbent.  If there is a leak, it will
catch some of the water and also indicate where the water is coming in
(water stains).

4)With respect to freezer spaces, one good option is renting refrigerated
or freezer trucks, which may be available by the week or the month, with
rates varying on the size and age of the truck; some provide drivers; some
charge for delivery. Some companies rent diesel, and some electric (with
electric, you will need to provide the power and the parking space).  If a
driver is not provided, someone will likely need a Class B license to drive
them. In some disasters collections have been held for weeks just in
refrigerated storage; if nothing else is available it will at least prevent
mold growth.

5)Finally, I suspect you will be at greater risk of an emergency/damage
(not just water, but fire and collapse as well) during construction itself.
 It would be advisable to create a disaster plan *before* construction
begins.  If you do not have a fire detection/suppression system, you should
consider posting a standard 2 hour fire watch following the end of each
days work.  Also, note that plastic sheeting is extremely flammable.  You
may wish, if books are left in place, to cover them instead with fabric
treated with a fire retardent chemical.  Jolun (tel 614/418-1734) or Flame
Seal (tel 713/668-4291) are just two such companies that sell flame
retardent sprays (best are water based, non-toxic, no corrosive, free of
formaldehyde). 

I hope this is helpful.  Please feel free to contact NEDCC directly if you
require any further advice or assistance.  All the best - Karen



At 07:41 PM 9/2/98 -0500, you wrote:
>We have a potential disaster on our hands: part of our roof is needing 
>to be replaced and it is leaky in a random way. We have not had any 
>significant rain in over 3 weeks, since we discovered the severity of 
>the problem. (believe it or not, we suffered no weather from 
>Hurricane Bonnie).  Our campus administrators promise a new roof in 90 
>days possibly, but in the meantime, we are planning for problems. If 
>this roof is not fixed by winter, we may be in for serious problems, 
>since it is flat and we are in a major snow region.
>
>We are worried about water damage to books in our general stacks and we are 
>also worried about mold blooms in the ceiling tiles and crawl space 
>above the ceiling.  In preparation we have covered the affected areas 
>with 4 mil. plastic which drapes about halfway down each range; 
>patrons can fairly easily lift the plastic to get to books. 
>
>There are so far no obvious (blue) mold  outbreaks, and our stacks 
>have a relative humidity that is low most of the time anyway (in fact, 
>usually we are too dry), but one column near a window has a weird 
>white fungus imbedded in the wood panelling and we think we should 
>replace this. No books are showing mold at this point.
>
>We are working on disaster contingencies. We've contacted SOLINET and 
>several companies that specialize in moisture control. We feel 
>fortunate that we can kind of "plan" for this -- but I have a couple 
>of questions for the experts:
>
>1. In identifying local freezer spaces in the event of really wet 
>books, we are running up against possible Health Dept. restrictions 
>concerning placing non-food items in commercial food freezer space.
>How should we handle this? Boone is a small town with not much cold 
>storage other than food freezers. Disaster mitigation companies say 
>they will bring their trucks but they cannot get here immediately 
>since we are remote. We are thinking of asking staff with home 
>freezers to "adopt" books if necessary.
>
>2. Our Physical plant people say that the style of ceiling tiles we 
>have are not replacable (ie, no longer made). But we would rather have 
>the water-damaged ones removed and something else put up in place of them, 
>regardless of what they look like. We want to remove the waterlogged 
>tiles because of the possibility of mold. Any suggestion on how to deal 
>with this? If the holes are left open, all the heat rises in the winter, 
>and that causes problems with HVAC system.
>
>Thanks for any advice. 
>
>Sincerely,
>Eleanor Cook
>*********************************************************************
>Eleanor I. Cook                   828-262-2786 (wrk)     NEW PO BOX
>Serials Specialist                828-262-2773 (fax)         & 
>(and Preservation Specialist)
>Belk Library, PO Box 32026                               Area Code!          
>Appalachian State University                             Spring '98
>Boone, NC 28608-2026              cookei@xxxxxxxxxxxx  
>*********************************************************************
>
>
>

******************************
Karen E.K. Brown
Field Service Representative
Northeast Document Conservation Center
100 Brickstone Square
Andover, MA  01810-1494
kebrown@xxxxxxxxx
Tel.(978) 470-1010
Fax (978) 475-6021
http://www.nedcc.org

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