There are a number of reasons to trust the storage of your Toronto office furniture to specialized warehouses. This week, we’re going to focus more in-depth on one aspect: Climate control.
Many storage systems cut back on costs by foregoing any sort of climate control. It makes fiscal sense on their end; storage facilities are usually massive, lofty structures, often with poor weatherproofing, which would cost a small fortune to heat, cool, and dehumidify all year round.
Unfortunately, this lack of climate control can cause significant damage to stored items, particularly office furniture.
As most remember from high school science, things expand and contract in response to heat and cold. This is why old houses creak and ‘settle’ when the weather turns. It’s also why a piece of furniture you put in storage might go in with snug joints and come out wobbly and ruined.
Every time the temperature rises or drops sharply, your furniture will expand and contract, often warping slightly in the process. With enough dips and spikes in the temperature, office furniture can become completely unusable.
Furniture with wood components are particularly vulnerable in this way, as its porous nature makes it warp more than other materials. If any piece of furniture has both wood and metal components, such as a wood outer panel on a metal divider, extreme temperatures can cause the wood to tear itself free of the metal altogether.
Extreme temperatures can also ruin many materials. Leathers, for instance, will chap and crack if left in fluctuating temperatures.
Humidity is another climate control factor that is potentially fatal to your office furniture. Furniture with metal components will begin to rust if left in a humid environment, often striking joints and screw holes. It doesn’t take much rust for screw threading to become unusable, and even the slightest bit of rust in a corner-joint of a desk can be extremely unsightly.
Moisture also presents a perfect environment for mold to grow. At best, this will give all the fabric components of your furniture a pungent, unpleasant odor that can be very difficult to eliminate. At worst, the mold could be toxic, forcing you to discard the furniture altogether or else face sick employees and legal liability.
Moisture, like extreme temperatures, can also have a major effect on rigid materials such as leather and ‘leather-like’ plastics. Exposure to moisture causes leather to warp and harden, turning your plush, luxurious executive-style seating into a lumpy, uncomfortable write-off.
Everyone in Toronto remembers our last winter. It started unseasonably warm, and then made us pay for that warmth with a barrage of cold snaps, peppered with more unseasonably warm days to tease us before plunging back below freezing.
Toronto’s climate makes stored office furniture particularly vulnerable to the elements. The Choice office furniture warehouse is fully climate-controlled and staffed with employees who know how to safely and carefully store and handle office furniture. Make sure your office furniture is stored correctly. Call us today.