Standing book in a tub in preperation for treating with CLO2 gas

Treating hard cover books that have mold and/or smoke odors is pretty easy if you don’t have too many books. Using a tub available at Walmart, K-mart, and many dry good stores will do just fine.  The main things you need to look for is that they are tall enough to accommodate your tallest book and that they have a relatively flat bottom so that you can put cake racks in the bottom to set the books on. This is so that they have an air space under the book.

Having a lid that seals tightly is less important than a lid that is easy to put on and take off without knocking over the books in the tub.

If you have a large number of books you may want to install the plastic coated steel wire shelving used to organize closets available at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, K-Mart, and other similar stores.

Example of adjustable wire closet shelving for book recovery

This is an example of the strip mounted wire  shelve closet shelving system. There are others of equal and lesser quality and cost. This one is mounted on 24 inch centers. The actual shelving is available in 8 or 10 foot lengths  and can be cut to a length that will fit in your closet with a hacksaw.  The clothes hanger bas can be left off or better utilization of vertical space. Shelves over 3 feet in length will require at least 1 additional support rail mounted near the middle of the shelf to support the weight.

Because of the direction of the wire, the books will have to be placed so that they span the bars and not fall in between them.

If the shelves are deep enough magazines, comic books and other documents can be hung over the wires of the shelf for treatment. Generally using every other wire will give enough space between the documents.

You can install as many of these shelves on a set of vertical rails as is appropriate for the height requirement of the books or documents you are treating. But be aware, the more documents you treating the longer it will take to eliminate the mold. When a molecule of  CLO2 lands on a mold fungus or spore, it decomposes into CLO and O1 and is done for ever. The O1 is the part does the job in the mold and spores.  So, the more books, or magazines, or mold you have the more CLO2 it will take to eliminate the mold. Since the production of CLO2 is relatively constant, the time to treat the documents get longer or the CLO2 packet size can to be increased to shorten the treatment time.

If the mold has encroached deeply into the pages of the documents or books, reducing the treatment time is not in your best interest.  It does take a finite amount of time for the CLO2 under the best circulation conditions to penetrate deeply into the documents pages. More CLO2 will help but time and circulation are you best friends.

Finding and screwing the rails into the studs in the wall and not just the plaster board is extremely important. Shelving loaded with books gets very heavy and will pull the screws right out of the wall board even if you use the plastic mollies.

Mount the CLO2 packet high in the closet and put a small fan in the bottom of the closet directed in such a way as to make the air circle upward in the closet. Remember, CLO2 is heavier that air and tends to collect on the floor. The fan will prevent that from happening.

There is more information on the OdorXit website or you can email or call the toll free help line during business hours EST.