Wood furniture is very susceptible to the elements, particularly humidity changes. People who are self-storing their wooden furniture should consider investing in a climate-controlled center to protect their investment.
How Humidity Can Seriously Damage Your Wooden Furniture
When the humidity in a storage center gets too high, wooden furniture will start to suffer. For example, high humidity can cause water to seep into the cracks of wooden furniture. This will make the wood expand and contract, ruining its structure. This can also lead to other problems, including mold buildup that can seriously damage wooden furniture.
The most basic self-storage centers will lack climate control and will put wooden furniture at risk for this type of damage. That's why it is important for anyone who is storing high-quality or even low-quality wood furniture to purchase a climate-controlled storage option.
How Climate-Controlled Storage Units Help
Climate-controlled self-storage units allow owners to adjust the temperature and relative humidity of the interior. The humidity options are generally not as exact as those of the temperature, but the air can be dehumidified. This is particularly true if the owner of the storage unit installs a self-contained dehumidifier to help.
Keeping the temperature at a relatively stable temperature will also help manage any of the expanding and contracting damage caused by extreme weather changes. Keeping things at a room temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit is the best way to protect furniture from humidity and temperature-based damage.
How to Choose the Best Humidity Level for Your Wood Furniture
To protect wooden furniture from humidity damage, you should keep the moisture level in the air at around 35 percent. Any higher will cause serious problems with expanding and contracting. However, lower than that will decrease the moisture content of the wood and lead to cracks and other problems.
Devoting an entire climate-controlled storage locker to wooden furniture is a good idea. Other types of items, such as electronics, won't be able to handle such high levels of humidity for extended periods of time. Investing in multiple climate-controlled lockers in this way can help a person keep their wooden furniture and other items safe from severe damage.
While it may be expensive for some people to invest in these many storage lockers, it may be necessity for someone who is storing a wide variety of items. Self-storage locker companies do sometimes offer discounts for those who rent multiple lockers, though, and that is a solution that may be appealing to many.
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