[78-L] Storage units

[David Lennick]

Speaking of things going funky, has anyone ever had a plastic bag disintegrate 
for no apparent reason? I found one falling to pieces last night. It contained 
a number of documents and had come from a funeral home about 4 years ago. No 
unusual temperature or humidity extremes where it was being kept. I've heard of 
biodegradable bags, and even seen one that was marked "This will degrade in 18 
months" (which is reassuring since I have no idea how long it had been in the 
store before I bought what was put in it, and it's still in usable condition).

dl

On 1/15/2013 9:56 PM, Ron L'Herault wrote:
> Part of the problem may be that he opened the doors.  It would have been
> better not to go in.
>
> Ron L
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of David Lennick
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 7:40 PM
> To: 78-L Mail List
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Storage units
>
> I'll say YIKES since I know the units in question..interesting that this
> didn't happen last winter.
>
> Damp sleeves and records are not a good mix. Hey..I have two dehumidifiers.
> Want one?
>
> dl
>
> On 1/15/2013 7:25 PM, DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
>> While we have discussed storage conditions for records many times on this
> list, and have come to the conclusion that as long as temperature changes
> are gradual, records can tolerate temperature ranges from deep freeze to
> summer heat, I had a jolting experience the other day.  Toronto was enjoying
> spring like weather last weekend so I took the opportunity to visit my
> outdoor storage units.  You can imagine my horror when I saw that my storage
> cabinets were covered with water!  Not from a leaking pipe or any other kind
> of flooding, but from condensation;  obviously the cold steel cabinets
> contacting the temporarily warm air caused this.  All the doors were coated
> with mist and had droplets running down them and the handles looked like
> cold water pipes on a hot summer day.  I opened one of the cabinets and
> found the inside to be dry, which was a bit of a relief but records sitting
> on shelves not in cabinets had their envelopes all rippled as if they
>>    were wet and any record I took out of an envelope was also covered with
> mist.  This is a disturbing situation because Toronto's weather is such that
> there are always going to be warm spells in mid winter and although I assume
> this water would be very clean, it can't be good for these records to get
> wet, especially when, as in this case, the warm spell came to an abrupt end
> and the next day was below freezing - probably freezing the condensation on
> the surfaces of the records.
>>
>> This unit contains about 40,000 records so there isn't much I can do
>> about drying them off individually.  The only positive side of this
>> situation, (the glass being too full), is that if the records are
>> destroyed and must be disposed of, I'll save hundreds of dollars in
>> storage costs. :-(
>>
>> db
> _______________________________________________