Water Damage on Art – Stains, Mold Discover 5 Little Known Survival Tips
By Chelsea Padgett, Guest Blogger
We all have valuable, if not irreplaceable, items on paper: certificates, diplomas, love letters, genealogy… stuff that can’t be insured. Collectors of prints and art on paper have investment and decorating money wrapped up in their items. Water damage is enemy #1.
Have any of your prints or personal documents been exposed to water? Little brown dots on your paper items could tell a past story of mold that had died and dried. Maybe there is a leak in your garage and it happens to be right over a box of your family history papers, diplomas and wedding certificates?
If it has, you may be now wondering what those live fuzzy dots on it are… it is live mold that will get wore, stain worse with time and eat into your cherished family treasures, memorabilia, heirlooms. Now your thinking how in the world can you get rid of it???
This is a print that was in a woman’s house that caught on fire, the fireman luckily saved her house, so naturally all of her house contents (lots of art, paintings and prints) were exposed to water, staining, mold, etc. We got involved as the expert witness for her insurance company to help them figure out the damage, settle and to help her take care of the damage.
This print from the 1800’s had mold growing all over it. After it got wet, it was luckly set aside somewhere safe where it wouldn’t be touched, put somewhere to dry and now it is covered with the little brown dots of dead mold as mentioned before. It attacked the mating around the picture, the backing board behind the print, and there’s a little bit barely on the print itself.
So, what do you do now? I have good news! You can’t do anything about the dots nor water stains. You’ll need professional help for that. So, take that task off your To-Do list. But I will tell you how you can stabilize the stains so they don’t get darker or spread.
DO NOT THROW YOUR STAINED FAMILY HISTORY DOCUMENTS, OLD PHOTOS OR PRINTS AWAY! (My Mom did that and I’m still crying over the important stuff we lost) Follow these 5 Little Known Survival Tips, as I promised:
- Don’t handle any paper items while they are wet! They will tear. Let them dry out, move the air with fans, don’t turn on a heater… that will encourage mold growth!
- Do not try and clean the mat and backing board, just throw them away. If the framing needs to be pulled apart, the framer can do that for you. You will probably damage the matted item.
- Get an architect cleaning pad to get fuzzy mold off of the artwork. This will not remove the stain (Click here for Chapter 6 page 87 of How to Save Your Stuff from a Disaster). Be sure to wear a protective dust mask and plastic gloves.
- Deacidify the print from the back of the artwork with a deacidification spray. This will help retard any future discoloration and darkening of the paper or stains. Use in a well ventilated area. The solvent will also kill the mold.
- Either store in Mylar protective envelope or reframe/re-mat in acid free buffer boards. As you can see in this photo, the mold afflicted the print mostly around the border and not in the central image. So, when you re-matt the item, you can “matt out” the mold stains around the edges. In this case you wouldn’t have to do anything to the “fix” the print.
Those of you that enjoy a little “light” do-it-yourself work, this process is for you. Get a copy of How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster for more instructions, fun stories and invaluable help. For supplies, go to University Products.
Art conservation questions? Call Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438
Art appraisal questions? Call Richard Holgate 805 895 5121
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Water stains can really damage a painting or wood. I am glad to hear that paintings can be restored from that because I always wondered if there was any hope in recovering a painting ruined by water.
Mold is horrible to deal with but glad to hear that paintings that are damaged by water and moldy can be restored.
Yes mold is very damaging. It is a great thing paintings that are damaged from water can be restored.
Mold is very scary and happy to hear it can be removed
Wow water damage can be very… damaging. Mold is awful. Glad something to be done to remove it.
Water is one element that creates just as much damage as fire would. Excellent read.
This is why I do not have wooden floors. They can be easily damaged by water and they are expensive to maintain.
One of my old paintings was ruined by water damage but I had it restored. The job was so-so. I am thinking of getting Scott to take a look at it since he is truly the expert.
water damage is horrific and difficult to fix.
Sad subject but much appreciated to know more about having hope that moldy items can be stabilized and made to look good again. I’ve got mold on some framed items from Hurricane Sandy. I’ll call. Thanks!
Melissa,
Thanks for bringing in your very sad painting! Just so you all know, Karen’s Dad had a gorgeous oil painting by CA Impressionist Granville Redmond he didn’t like (whaaaaaa?!) and tossed into the garage storage area where it got wet! The canvas shrunk and the painting was heavily damaged. But then, the story get worse… he took it to an Eastern European master restorer in the San Francisco Bay Area who scrapped off the flaking paint, then repainted it.
Melissa has now inherited the painting and want to undo the past sins of her father. So, last week, after carefully searching for the right person to work on it, we met (for the 3rd time) and she gave us the painting. I’ll be blogging about the process so stay tuned!
It’s interesting, isn’t that when most people think of fire damage they don’t think of water damage (required to put out the fire).
Great, i need to get a painting restored.
Great Steve, we often do work for Belfor… even on a national basis. I do both art conservation and consulting for your company.