Email digest for the Global Conservation Forum (ConsDistList) egroup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. RE: Planning High Shelving in a Museum Store (Advice Needed) 2. Advise on Protective Coatings for Wooden Surfaces Gilded With Silver Leaf 3. RE: Fume extractor recommendation 4. RE: Fume extractor recommendation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.From: Karin von Lerber Posted: Sunday May 25, 2025 6:58 AM Subject: RE: Planning High Shelving in a Museum Store (Advice Needed) Message: Dear Diana, We are storage planners in Europe and have planned many different storage facilities over the last 25 years. We probably have slightly different legal requirements in Europe, so please take my comments with a pinch of salt. For small to medium-sized properties, you will want to go for a shelving unit. Sensible heights are in my opinion up to approx. 300 cm with a shelf depth of 60 cm. In my experience users do not like heights above this. In addition, the platform stairs (not ladders) become wider with increasing height and require a wider access aisle. In most cases, you will use a double sided shelf with a depth of 2 x 60 cm. A single shelf with a depth of 1 x 60 cm would just be acceptable for us, as we have a rule of thumb that the compartment depth must not exceed 1:5 of the shelf height. I usually don't go deeper than 70 cm (for manually accessed ovjects), as deeper shelves are difficult to reach. Please note also that objects should never be removed from the shelf from above your head (This ultimately defines the height of the platform). Greater heights can be achieved with (electrified) double-deck shelving (e.g. 2 x 250 cm), but you do not have the necessary room height for this. The same applies to a permanently installed mezzanine floor. To make the best use of the room height, I would use pallet racks that can be operated with a forklift. The items are then logically stored on pallets or in appropriate containers on the pallets. If all items are well organised, they can be accessed easily. Please note that for structural reasons, the first level of the rack cannot be placed too high up. With fixed racks, heavy objects can be pushed into the rack at floor level and do not need to be lifted. In principle, the load must be taken into account for all shelvin/racking types and heights. These are then designed by professional suppliers depending on this. The reach height of forklifts varies greatly. Smaller models (pedestrian stackers with 1000/1500kg load) have a reach height of approx. 360 cm. This is sufficient to load a rack with a corner height of 400 cm, as the top level must be at least 50 cm below the corner height of the rack. Since such a stacker requires an aisle width of at least 270 cm, you may want to consider using a shelving system instead, as the aisles between the shelves would then be just under half (120 cm). This might be the more sensible solution in your case. Both shelving racks and pallet racks can be built to be movable, although the latter is relatively complex and expensive, as it usually has to be electrified. You could also optimize with mobile shelving and gain approx. ⅓ of volume on the same usable surface. Verrtcal caroussel systems are impressive, but relatively complex and expensive (reasonable for high frequency in/out). With used systems, there is also a risk that spare parts will no longer be available in the near future. There are also options for compact storage systems for cars, which allow up to three vehicles to be stored on top of each other to make the most of the available space – but they don't come cheap... A system of this kind is set to be implemented in Gothenburg (Sweden) in the near future. Please feel free to contact me for further information (even though we normally do not work outside the German speaking area) and you can also take a look at our website www.prevart.ch (picture gallery, storage equipment) where you will find many examples of our work. All the best Joachim ------------------------------ Karin von Lerber Co-Founder and Co-Director Prevart Ltd. Winterthur Switzerland ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- Original Message: Sent: 05-19-2025 11:40 From: Diana Bencatel Subject: Planning High Shelving in a Museum Store (Advice Needed) Hi everyone! I work at a car museum, and we're currently preparing a new storage area to bring together all the objects that are currently spread across different spaces. The storage space has a ceiling height of just over 4 meters. Our initial idea was to make full use of the height by installing shelving units up to 4 meters tall. We planned to store the larger items (such as engines, repair equipment, and signage - up to 1.80 m tall) on the floor, and place smaller items on the upper shelves. At first, we thought we'd use a forklift to access the higher shelves, but we later realized the forks only reach about 3 meters. So now we're considering storing lighter objects (like typewriters and trophies) on the higher shelves and accessing them with a stepladder instead. This raised another question: what is considered a safe maximum height to go up and down a stepladder while handling objects - even with someone assisting from the ground? Three meters is starting to seem quite high. Does it even make sense to have shelving that reaches 4 meters? We will also have some smaller shelving units in this space to store our archive. For these, is there a recommended maximum height for the top shelf? Would 2.70 meters be too high to access safely with a stepladder? If you have any experience that might be helpful in this situation, I'd really appreciate your input! Feel free to reply here or email me at [email protected] <[email protected]>. Many thanks! Diana Bencatel 2.From: Fleur Folmer Posted: Sunday May 25, 2025 7:44 AM Subject: Advise on Protective Coatings for Wooden Surfaces Gilded With Silver Leaf Message: Dear colleagues, I am reaching out to seek your advice and any relevant references regarding the protective coatings traditionally or currently used on wooden surfaces gilded with silver leaf. I would be grateful for any information you can share-whether based on practical experience, conservation case studies, or published research. Thank you in advance for your time and guidance. Warm regards, Fleur Folmer Master student West Dean College ------------------------------ Fleur Folmer London United Kingdom ------------------------------ 3.From: Perry Hurt Posted: Sunday May 25, 2025 12:55 PM Subject: RE: Fume extractor recommendation Message: Thanks to everyone that responded publicly and privately to my posting about mobile fume extractors. Your comments have been very helpful. Monona Rossal and Kathryn Makos' responses were right on point, insightful, and educational. As a state-owned public institution, the NCMA must follow regulations to use the proper equipment in the prescribed way to protect everyone involved: conservators, fellow museum staff, and of course our visitors. Equipment companies and their salespeople may or may not be aware of those regulations, and I appreciate Monona and Kathryn reminding me that I do have to be aware of them. On the other hand, we have the responses of Matthew Skopek, Marie-Louise Lorentzen, and many other conservators who responded privately to me (both institutional and private practice) that they have found these mobile fume extractors very useful. They underscored that this type of extractor proved safe and effective in situations with low or moderate organic solvent use if equipped with activated carbon filters. Many used Extract-All models, but other brands and models were mentioned as well. Previous to my time at the NCMA I spent many years working in private practice, in my own home studio, in studios of every description for other conservators, and on-site mural work as well. In many of those situations a fully vetted and vented fume extraction system was not possible for any number of reasons, high cost being a primary one. Inevitably we made do as best we could and looked for practical solutions to difficult circumstances. It seems clear that fume extractors like the Extract-All and other similar brands and models can be a safe, effective, and an economical alternative to solvent fume extraction, if they are used mindfully and appropriately. Thanks again to everyone that responded. I'll be in Minneapolis for the conference if you'd like to discuss this further. Perry Hurt Director of Conservation Conservation Department phone: 919-664-6813 Cell phone: 919-780-7416 ------------------------------ Perry Hurt Director of Conservation North Carolina Museum of Art Raleigh, NC 919-664-6813 ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- Original Message: Sent: 05-15-2025 16:24 From: Perry Hurt Subject: Fume extractor recommendation The North Carolina Museum of Art Conservation Department is planning on purchasing a mobile fume extractor. Currently we are interesting in the Extract-All SP987-5-2A Dual Arm Portable Air Cleaner, SP987-5-2A Dual Arm Portable Air Cleaner - Air Impurities Removal Systems <https://www.airsystems-inc.com/products/fume-extractors/sp987-5-2a-dual-arm-portable-air-cleaner/>. Does anyone have insights on this model, or other suggestions for fume extractors? We are looking for a compact fume extractor, mainly to filter organic solvent fumes that commonly result from cleaning and retouching artworks. It's been suggested that the two-arm variety are particularly useful to cover both the artwork being treated as well as a taboret where solvents are being accessed. Like many mobile fume extractors, this Extract-All model has a replaceable internal filter. We would also like to have the option of venting fumes outside, out a window for example. Thanks Perry PSÂ Note that my email address has changed to [email protected] <[email protected]> (from [email protected] <[email protected]>) (George) Perry Hurt Director of Conservation North Carolina Museum of Art Direct desk phone: 919-664-6813 Museum phone: 919-839-6262 Â NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART 2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607 Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm (919) 839-6262 Â The NCMA is a division of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties. Email correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized state official. 4.From: Monona Rossol Posted: Sunday May 25, 2025 3:16 PM Subject: RE: Fume extractor recommendation Message: Other people's experience with the system doesn't really work here. Each of these people may have been doing different tasks with different solvents in different amounts. Instead, there should be a formal risk assessment. The tasks that will be done must be known and either a calculated estimate based on evaporation rate and surface area exposed must be done or air monitoring during the process must establish the volume of vapor and the rate at which it will be generated and if the extractor is up to the job. And this system also has very small arms and hoods, so the possibility of solvent not being captured has to be looked at. In addition, there either has to be an-end-of-service-life-indicator on the charcoal filter, monitoring for break through solvent vapor, or the total amount of solvent the filter can capture must be known. In other words, some method of knowing when to change the filter must be established. This has to be done both to ensure exposures are under the standards and for ensuring that at no point does the solvent concentration exceed the lower explosion level. ------------------------------------------- Original Message: Sent: 5/25/2025 12:17:00 PM From: Perry Hurt Subject: RE: Fume extractor recommendation Thanks to everyone that responded publicly and privately to my posting about mobile fume extractors. Your comments have been very helpful. Monona Rossal and Kathryn Makos' responses were right on point, insightful, and educational. As a state-owned public institution, the NCMA must follow regulations to use the proper equipment in the prescribed way to protect everyone involved: conservators, fellow museum staff, and of course our visitors. Equipment companies and their salespeople may or may not be aware of those regulations, and I appreciate Monona and Kathryn reminding me that I do have to be aware of them. On the other hand, we have the responses of Matthew Skopek, Marie-Louise Lorentzen, and many other conservators who responded privately to me (both institutional and private practice) that they have found these mobile fume extractors very useful. They underscored that this type of extractor proved safe and effective in situations with low or moderate organic solvent use if equipped with activated carbon filters. Many used Extract-All models, but other brands and models were mentioned as well. Previous to my time at the NCMA I spent many years working in private practice, in my own home studio, in studios of every description for other conservators, and on-site mural work as well. In many of those situations a fully vetted and vented fume extraction system was not possible for any number of reasons, high cost being a primary one. Inevitably we made do as best we could and looked for practical solutions to difficult circumstances. It seems clear that fume extractors like the Extract-All and other similar brands and models can be a safe, effective, and an economical alternative to solvent fume extraction, if they are used mindfully and appropriately. Thanks again to everyone that responded. I'll be in Minneapolis for the conference if you'd like to discuss this further. Perry Hurt Director of Conservation Conservation Department phone: 919-664-6813 Cell phone: 919-780-7416 ------------------------------ Perry Hurt Director of Conservation North Carolina Museum of Art Raleigh, NC 919-664-6813 ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- Original Message: Sent: 05-15-2025 16:24 From: Perry Hurt Subject: Fume extractor recommendation The North Carolina Museum of Art Conservation Department is planning on purchasing a mobile fume extractor. Currently we are interesting in the Extract-All SP987-5-2A Dual Arm Portable Air Cleaner, SP987-5-2A Dual Arm Portable Air Cleaner - Air Impurities Removal Systems <https://www.airsystems-inc.com/products/fume-extractors/sp987-5-2a-dual-arm-portable-air-cleaner/>. Does anyone have insights on this model, or other suggestions for fume extractors? We are looking for a compact fume extractor, mainly to filter organic solvent fumes that commonly result from cleaning and retouching artworks. It's been suggested that the two-arm variety are particularly useful to cover both the artwork being treated as well as a taboret where solvents are being accessed. Like many mobile fume extractors, this Extract-All model has a replaceable internal filter. We would also like to have the option of venting fumes outside, out a window for example. Thanks Perry PSÂ Note that my email address has changed to [email protected] <[email protected]> (from [email protected] <[email protected]>) (George) Perry Hurt Director of Conservation North Carolina Museum of Art Direct desk phone: 919-664-6813 Museum phone: 919-839-6262 Â NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART 2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607 Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm (919) 839-6262 Â The NCMA is a division of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties. Email correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized state official. You are subscribed to "Global Conservation Forum (ConsDistList)" as [email protected]. To change your subscriptions, go to http://community.culturalheritage.org/preferences?section=Subscriptions. 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