Relaxing at the beach with a good book is a great way to spend a warm day. You probably won’t be too upset if your paperback gets damp and the pages get a little wavy. After all, it cost you ten bucks, and it’s still readable.
Nobody would say the same thing about damage to a cherished leather-bound antique or family heirloom book. Restoring your treasured tomes is a much more complicated and important process than drying it out in the sun, or getting out the Scotch tape. Precious books such as family bibles, photo books, genealogical records and precious hardcover antique books that have been handed down for generations deserve the best care.
Book Repair Services Can Help
Book restoration can include many repair tasks, such as:
- Rebinding, recasing and recovering are a few ways to repair a damaged cover.
- If the pages are coming out, resewing and rebacking are just a few ways book repair services can salvage damaged books.
- Removing water and smoke damage are additional tasks a book repair service can help with.
Books Damaged by Water
When antique books get wet or are damaged by humidity, they must be dried properly and promptly to prevent further damage. Mold and mildew can grow inside books quickly. And since mold and mildew are airborne spores, the growth can spread throughout your whole bookcase in a matter of days. If you do dry out the damaged book and brush off obvious mold growth, the mold can leave stains on the pages and cover.
Unresolved dampness in a book could also result in ink fading. When some old printing materials get wet, the pages often stick together. Prying sticky pages apart is not advised. It’s too easy to cause permanent damage to your important texts.
A book restoration expert has special tools and methods to separate and preserve these pages without damaging the paper, text, or images.
How to Prevent Damage to Books
Taking a few simple precautions will protect your cherished books from damage.
Try these tips to keep your books in great condition:
- Practice
Safe Book Storage Techniques
Whenever possible, store books standing up on shelves, rather than in stacks. Don’t cram too many books onto one shelf. Keep fragile, valuable and sentimental books on the top shelf, out of reach of children and pets. - Protect
Books From Humidity
Don’t keep plants on or near your bookshelves. If your house is often humid, use a dehumidifier to keep the dampness level below 60 percent. Store all your books in your climate-controlled living spaces. Books do not belong in attics, basements or garages! - But Don’t
Let Books Get Too Dry, Either
Protect books from direct sunlight and lamps – books that get too dry can crack and deteriorate. - Keep
Bookcases Clean
Dust your books and bookshelves regularly. Mold tends to grow more vigorously in dirty or dusty environments. - Always
Use a Bookmark
Use a bookmark to keep your place, rather than folding the corners of pages.
Prism Specialties knows a thing or two about how to repair a book.
We use specialized technologies to repair and restore antique books of all kinds. Removing mold and water stains and restoring damaged or loose covers are just a few of the specialized book restoration services we offer. (And if you get your Kindle wet at the beach, we can fix that, too!)
Call 888-826-9429 or click to submit a claim for book restoration and your local Prism Specialties will quickly respond with a quote.
