storing vinyl, reducing damage over many years


Hi -

I bought 3 of these that I have stacked successfully one on top of each other and filled with albums:

http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RR-OAK-UN

(I didn't buy it directly there, I bought it on ETSY, but the etsy link no longer appears valid, so I am referencing this web link).

I was basically happy with everything, I did the assembly, everything is solid.

My question: will the lack of any support in the middle area of the albums, over many years, cause damage to the albums? I went through and find a certain percent of my albums were drooping down through damaged covers, so for now I have removed these. I don't know, some might say this is paranoid, but if they sit there for 10-20-30 years and ultimately some of them over time are damaged, it would bother me, so I figured I'd ask the question now.
joshl

Showing 3 responses by czarivey

one way or another you can't void shelfwear. to some degree of magnitude one will show even on sealed new records. no middle support assumes that your cover hold records otherwise the cover should be repaired. absolutely with no exception all jackets i place into plastic outer sleeve for protection. for extreamly valuable records covers are separated and records are placed onto generic sleeves. almost same i apply to box sets to preserve the box.

and finally for simply storring records i prefer uhaul stackable boxes that are only $.60 vs. $75 and can hold your cargo for decades in darkness the way the're suppose to be stored. for that i usually arrange plywood tiles in front and back of the stack to prevent bending corners.
My collection is near 10,000 vinyls. To clean them all is going to take a calendar year. Instead ones being washed only filthy ones. If they don't need washing/cleaning they stay dry.
It all depends how often you take vinyl out for the spin. Frequently listened ones may need occasional cleaning, but mostly cleaning is void unless it's indeed necessary. If simple sweeping with anti-static brush does not help, than VPI maybe turned on or any other available record cleaner. I don't beleive that cleaning before listening is good practice. Less stress longer life applies not only to vinyl. New vinyl out of the shrinkwrap is great to clean in order to collect any post-cutting debris, take outside of picture sleeve and place onto VRP or similar inner sleeve. Then KEEP IT CLEAN AND SAFE.
That is fixable relatively cheep by visiting Lowes or Home Depot and asking to cut certain size of the bottom plywood.