Before you choose
Seven Questions, and the Answers That Should Worry You
Every facility will tell you it is climate controlled. These questions separate the ones that are.
Come and see the environment before you send anything. Bring your registrar, your conservator or your insurer — we would rather they saw it than took our word for it.
The seven
Ask these of every facility, including us. The answers vary far more than the marketing does.
- Where is the collection relative to the floodplain?
- Is the environment conditioned continuously, or during occupied hours?
- Show me an actual environmental record, not a target figure.
- Who handles my work, and are they employed by you?
- Do I get a condition report with photographs, and when?
- What happens to conditioning during an extended power outage?
- Can I visit and bring my conservator?
Answers that should worry you
Any of these is a reason to keep looking.
- "It is climate controlled" with no figures and no record offered.
- Below-grade or ground-level storage in a flood-prone area.
- Handling by whoever is on shift, or by agency staff.
- Self-service access to your own racks.
- Reluctance to let you visit before committing.
The one that matters most
Elevation. Every other variable can be improved with equipment, procedure and money. A building either sits above the water or it does not, and in South Florida that is the difference between a bad week and a total loss.
Common questions
- Should we visit before committing?
- Always, and bring your conservator or insurer if you can.
- What is the single most important question?
- Elevation relative to the floodplain. Nothing else can compensate for it.
- Is "climate controlled" meaningful?
- Not on its own. Ask for the actual record, not the target.
- Does it matter who handles the work?
- Considerably. Ask whether handlers are employed or agency staff.
Tell us what needs to move.
What, from where, and roughly when. You do not need an inventory to start the conversation, and if the job belongs with an armored carrier we will say so on the call.