Katie,
I have written about this extensively in the past on MuseumL. If your storage area is for furniture, and you want to use plywood for mobile platforms, simply covering the platforms with ethafoam (generic polyethylene) 1/8 inch thick should be sufficient. Yes, the plywood will off-gas, but so will the original wooden objects. I do not believe you will have any damage attributable to the plywood. Now, if you have a significant amount of textiles or paper stored in the same room, you may want to seal the plywood. But incidental amounts, such as some upholstery, should not be a problem. Of course, as always, YMMV.
If you need to seal, all edges need to be covered. Materials like Marvelseal are great (and expensive for large surface areas), but the edges of the plywood are very hard to cover, and it does not stick well in these locations long-term. The best brush-able sealant would be a paint with aluminum flake pigment. This should be made for interior use, as some of the exterior products may have tar and other components that may themselves produce harmful volatiles. You can make you own paint with aluminum flake pigment and an acrylic resin approved for conservation use or shellac (preferably de-waxed). If not, use an off-the-shelf product such as BIN, a white pigmented shellac product. Use a minimum of three coats on all surfaces. This will not be as good as aluminum flake pigment, but is much more available. Tests at the US Forest Products laboratory have shown that shellac and polyurethane are the best vapor barriers of the commonly available coatings suitable for this application, and adding pigment increases their effectiveness.
Marc
American Conservation Consortium, Ltd.
4 Rockville Road
Broad Brook, CT 06016
www.conservator.com
860-386-6058
*Collections Preservation Consultation
*Conservation Assessments & Surveys
*Environmental Monitoring & Low-Tech Control
*Moisture Management Solutions
*Collections in Historic Structures
*Collections Care Grant Preparation
*Conservation Treatment of:
Furniture
Painted Wood
Horse-Drawn Vehicles
Architectural Interiors
Decorative Objects & Folk Art
Marc A. Williams, President
MS in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum Program
Former Chief Wooden Objects Conservator, Smithsonian Institution
Fellow, American Institute for Conservation (AIC)
----- Original Message -----
From: Katie Hall Burlison
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 5:44 PM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] sealing wood platforms/carts
Dear list:
We have extra plywood at our museum that the maintenance dept has offered to use to build some wheeled platforms for me to use to raise large pieces of furniture off the ground. Right now our large pieces are so close together that I have a hard time examining them.
I remember recently there was a discussion about a sealant to coat the plywood with to protect the artifacts from any harmful materials/chemicals. If anyone has any recommendations, could you please pass them along? I thought I saved the emails but can't seem to find them.
Thanks,
Katie Hall Burlison
Curator of Decorative Arts
Louisiana State Museum
1000 Chartres Street
New Orleans, La. 70116
504.568.5463
fax 504.599.1950
http://www.crt.state.la.us/museum/
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