Contents & reconstruction
Document and electronics recovery
Paper and circuit boards fail on different clocks, and both are running before you finish reading this. Here's what buys time, what the techniques actually do, and the honest odds for each.
Two materials, two failure clocks, filed under one service because they usually arrive from the same flooded room. Wet paper races mould, which begins on cellulose within about two days. Wet electronics race corrosion, which keeps working on a circuit board for days after the case feels dry.
Both disciplines are mostly triage. Paper is sorted by what it actually is — ink type, coated stock — because those behave differently in the same drying chamber. Electronics are sorted by what's actually recoverable, because for most equipment the data is worth more than the device.
Paper: freezing first, then drying by sublimation
Freezing stops deterioration immediately and buys time to plan the recovery. From there the standard technique is vacuum freeze-drying — ice turns straight to vapour without a liquid phase, which keeps pages from buckling further or ink from running.
Ballpoint and laser ink are stable; some inkjet and fountain ink run. Photographs need separate handling because the emulsion can stick to whatever it's touching. And not everything comes back — where the original doesn't matter, the honest advice is often to digitise the survivors.
Electronics: why nothing gets switched on
Corrosion keeps working on a board for days after the case feels dry, and powering the device on to test it is the single most common way a recoverable board becomes scrap. So nothing gets tested that way here.
Cleaning a board is possible, and we'll attempt it where the economics support it. For most consumer electronics they don't — a two-year-old laptop usually costs less to replace than to have professionally cleaned, with no way to know in advance how completely it recovers.
What we tell you before anything is cleaned
For documents: what will come back close to original, what will come back cleaner but changed, and what should be digitised instead. For electronics: what's worth cleaning, what should be replaced, and what's worth pulling the drive for.
That last one is often the real service. A device not worth repairing can still hold data worth a great deal, and recovering it is frequently a job for a specialist data-recovery lab rather than for us.
Some of it will not be saved. Some of it will not be saved, and you deserve to hear that on day one rather than after the cleaning bill. Water and smoke both sort belongings into three piles: things that clean up completely, things that can be restored for less than replacing them, and things where the cleaning costs more than the object is worth or where nothing will make them safe again — porous items soaked in category-three water, most soaked mattresses and upholstered foam, some heat-warped electronics. Anyone who tells you everything is recoverable is describing their invoice, not your possessions. We will tell you which pile a thing is in before we spend your money on it, and we will tell you when the honest answer is to replace it.
Included as standard
What the job actually includes
Paper frozen the same day
Stops further deterioration and buys time to plan the recovery.
Vacuum freeze-drying
Moisture leaves as vapour, not liquid, limiting buckling and ink run.
Sorted by what it actually is
Ink type, coated stock and photographs handled differently.
Electronics never powered on to test
Corrosion keeps working on a board days after it looks dry.
Board cleaning where it's worth it
Weighed against the cost of simply replacing the item.
Data recovery from the drive
Often worth more than the device — its own question.
A written assessment first
What's likely to come back, what to digitise, what to replace.
When to call us
Signs this is the job you need
- Boxes of paper sat in standing water for any length of time
- A laptop, router or other device was in the room when the water reached it
- Somebody already tried powering a wet device on to see if it still worked
- The documents involved are originals with no other copy — deeds, certificates, photographs
- Paper has been wet for more than a day and is still sitting in a damp box
- You need to know what's realistically recoverable before telling an insurer or a family member anything
Document and electronics recovery — what it costs
- By volume for documents; per unit and by assessment for electronics.$600 – $7,500
This is the range this job actually lands in, not a headline figure. The low end is a straightforward version of the work; the high end is one with a hard access problem, an old service, or something that has to be opened up before anybody can be certain. We tell you which one you have after we have looked, and the written quote says where the price could still move and why.
Questions we are actually asked
Documents & electronics — frequently asked
Can you save water-damaged photographs?
Sometimes, depending on the stock and how long they were wet before being separated and frozen. Some come back close to original condition; others don't, and we'll say which pile yours are in once we've looked.
My laptop got wet but won't turn on — should I try charging it?
No — don't power it on or plug it in until it's assessed. Corrosion keeps working on the board even after the case feels dry. Bring it in as it is and we'll say honestly whether cleaning or replacing makes more sense.
Is it cheaper to just buy a new device than have mine cleaned?
For most consumer electronics, yes — we'll say so rather than bill you to clean something a replacement beats on price. What isn't replaceable is the data, which is why recovering it is a separate question from saving the device.
Related work
Often needed alongside this
Pack-out & inventory
Everything photographed, listed and boxed before it leaves, so that what comes back is what went out.
$1,800 – $9,000
Contents cleaning
Cleaning what came out of the building, on a bench, with the ones that will not clean set aside and listed.
$1,200 – $9,000
Textiles & rugs
Off-site washing for the pieces worth washing, and a straight answer about the ones that are not.
$180 – $2,400
Water damage restoration
The whole job from the first hour to the last moisture reading — extraction, drying, and the repairs that put the room back.
$1,800 – $9,400Somebody who does the work will come and look
Book a visit
Telephone and you will get somebody on this crew rather than a call centre, at any hour. The emergency assessment is free inside our service area and you keep the written findings whether or not you use us. If what you describe will keep until the morning, we will tell you that instead of sending a van.