Are Your Documents Protected Against Severe Weather?

In recent years there has been a trend of ever increasing incidents of severe weather, be it flooding or extreme temperatures. Documents in paper form need to be carefully stored in order to protect them from the elements. If paper documents are not stored in a suitable location then there is the risk that these severe weather events can lead to catastrophic loss of information. This is one of the major downsides of keeping documents in paper form. There is no way to recover that vital information once the critical damage is done.

How Does Sever Weather Affect Paper Documents

Water damage can effect paper documents in many ways with differing consequences depending on the severity of the exposure. If the damage is severe then this can cause the ink to run or the paper to deteriorate beyond recognition. With lesser exposure the damage can cause reduced deterioration of the text, letting the documents dry out might allow some pages to be saved.

Even if the documents don’t get wet there is the potential for damp if the storage area isn’t temperature controlled. Temperature extremes can cause condensation which can lead to damp or mould which can spread to further documents. This can fester un-noticed for a long time potentially causing major issues down the line.

What can be done?

As an organisation you should evaluate your current document storage solution, make sure to check:

•   Where documents are stored?

•   Is this location in a known flood zone? (Check online)

•   Is the storage area physically sound?

•   Where does rain water run off to? Flash flooding can strike in unexpected areas.

Even if all of the above points are accounted for there is always the risk of the unexpected. The only way to ensure a document is not susceptible to severe weather is to have it digitised using a document scanning service. Scanned documents are the only type of document that does not deteriorate with age. If an electronic document is lost all that is required is to restore from a backup copy.

Document Scanning with UK Document Management

UK Document Management can assist with all of your needs when it comes to protecting documents from severe weather. Our document scanning services are suited to any type of document and can be tailored to the specific needs of any organisation. Even if the documents have already been weather damaged we may be able to save them from deteriorating further. Our experienced team can process documents of all qualities ensuring only the best possible images are obtained.

For more information on our document scanning services call us on 01625 574499 or email us at info@ukdoumentmanagement.com.