How Climate Controlled Storage Has Evolved in America
Secure Storage Was The Expectation
When I took over the small, one truck, two man moving company from William Huff in 1988, self-storage was a booming business. In fact many companies sprang up quickly as national entities and were putting steel boxes on vacant lots anywhere there seemed to be some growth happening. Boomers were prospering and upsizing by building bigger homes and there was a need to store items during the transition from old home to custom built home. Sometimes this transition would be 1-2 years. In fact, I was “roped” into taking over Bill’s little company when I was hired to manage a self-storage building in the center of downtown Dover, NH. Now, self-storage in those days was nothing but a steel box with a roll up door that you put your things into and locked. Air conditioning, heat or humidity control (all elements of climate controlled storage) was not ever an option. It was all about keeping your valuables secure. Most smaller moving companies did not have their own warehouses and we relied on these self-storage centers to store for our clients. It wasn’t long before the horrors of what non-climate controlled storage lockers did to furniture, pianos, elect ronics and even paper, during cold, harsh New England winters and brutally hot and humid summers, became evident. It was not uncommon to be hired to pick items up from a self-storage locker that had been there for several months, only to find mold, mildew, and even standing water in these units. Complete households were many times completely ruined. In one memorable instance I can remember picking up a Sony TV and water ran out from the bottom…needless to say, that never got plugged back in. Within a few years we built our own storage facility that we could provide heat for in the winter to avoid the frost and moisture problems of heating and cooling that happens with an uninsulated, non-heated space. The short hot seasons in New England tend to not be much of a factor in moisture or humidity issues with a well-insulated building, even if it does not have air conditioning.Climate Controlled Storage Today
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You will notice we use crates. We will fill you in about the benefits of crates versus boxes in another post.[/caption]
Fast forward to today and we now have state of the art “climate controlled” environments where we carefully monitor temperature and humidity to protect everything from valuable art to heirlooms to wine collections. The need to protect stored items properly in America, is much more prevalent today than it was years ago because homeowners realize the value of their house contents and want to properly protect them. In fact, some families will keep their property in these facilities for piece of mind.
Some of the property items that require climate controlled storage are:
- Art Collections
- Wine Collections
- Toys & Collectibles
- Magazines & Comics
- Antique collections
Posted by Jim Henderson
