Using the hangar for storage

J

JOhnH

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A comment in another thread got me to thinking:
I have a lot of old documents taking up a lot of space. I have plenty of space in the rented hangar, but it gets humid in there. Is there any time of cabinet that I could buy that would reduce the humidity such that I could store boxes of paper documents and not have them rot? I would prefer one that does not need electricity, but I do have one electric outlet.
 
If it's that humid, maybe it's not great for the airplane, either. Why not do a dehumidifier for the whole thing?
 
Put the paperwork in an old RV or boat(preferably one of each) and put that in the hangar.:D
 
LDJones said:
If it's that humid, maybe it's not great for the airplane, either. Why not do a dehumidifier for the whole thing?
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All of Florida is that humid. Putting a dehumidifier in a hangar would not be much different than putting it in your back yard without a lot of insulation and caulking and weather stripping.

At least the plane gets out and air dried every week or two.
 
I would reach out to Jay and ask him about his plastic room in his hanger in Texas. I've seen pictures of it. He hung plastic walls in the hanger and put in a AC unit to cool just that area. Might work well withe dehumidifier as well.
 
The hangar behind mine had an A&P in it who essentially built a tent out of tarps in one part of it so that she could get a bit of climate control in there while she was working.

A dehumidifier that doesn't have a provision for running the condensate out of the building isn't likely to be too useful. The tank will fill up in a few hours and it will shutdown and do nothing.

Most hangars are not sealed/insulated well enough to allow any sort of practical climate control.

They make watertight file boxes that would probably be your best bet.
 
flyingron said:
The hangar behind mine had an A&P in it who essentially built a tent out of tarps in one part of it so that she could get a bit of climate control in there while she was working.

A dehumidifier that doesn't have a provision for running the condensate out of the building isn't likely to be too useful. The tank will fill up in a few hours and it will shutdown and do nothing.

Most hangars are not sealed/insulated well enough to allow any sort of practical climate control.

They make watertight file boxes that would probably be your best bet.
Click to expand...
That's kind of what I was thinking. If it gets to be a big or expensive project it would be easier and maybe cheaper to just rent space at a commercial dehumidified storage facility.
 
As for a cabinet, you could buy one of those plastic dock boxes, or plastic storage units and add a dehumidifier, or small portable ac unit to it. However, the questions I would ask are:
1. Is this something you would store in your garage.
2. How will the FBO respond to the electric bills for this.
3. Are these documents something you could scan and store electronically, or are they even that important.


One of the things I like about my hangar is that it is not cluttered with extraneous stuff, and is bare bones. It is one of the few parts of my life that is not cluttered. I like to keep it that wat.
 
douglas393 said:
As for a cabinet, you could buy one of those plastic dock boxes, or plastic storage units and add a dehumidifier, or small portable ac unit to it. However, the questions I would ask are:
1. Is this something you would store in your garage.
2. How will the FBO respond to the electric bills for this.
3. Are these documents something you could scan and store electronically, or are they even that important.


One of the things I like about my hangar is that it is not cluttered with extraneous stuff, and is bare bones. It is one of the few parts of my life that is not cluttered. I like to keep it that wat.
Click to expand...
There are too many to scan and most of them would not be scan friendly. I have thousands of customer credit card receipts that have to keep for several years. I have lots of other receipts and legal papers I have to keep because of various regulatory agencies. I have documents, manuals, contracts and invoices for expensive equipment that I need to refer to occasionally. But not often enough to keep them underfoot here at the clinic.

My hangar is very uncluttered at the moment. In fact it very boringly spartan. A simple cabinet or stack of water proof boxes would not be much of an eyesore.
 
I put some shelves up and do store stuff in my hangar, but humidity is not an issue in Sacramento. There is lots of room in the back and the shelves don't get in the way. I also have a work bench a little fridge and some chairs. I don't get the spartan thing. Why not put the space to work.
 
Get a box with a good seal, and put in silica gel packs. Change every few months. They are cheap
 
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