Musty Smelling Records

The wondeful smell of mold & mildew from records stored in a damp place is noxious for sure. Curatorial means are available to eradicate it, but it's a bit of a pain. The chemical thymol is used to eliminate fungus from paper of all sorts. Go to an art curators supply house like Talasonline.com and you can buy it there. The basic principal involves getting a large cardboard box, putting some sort of shelf inside that you'll put your record jackets on, and then putting an open container of thymol dissolved in alcohol underneath the record jackets. I've speeded things up by evaporating the thymol over a small hot plate or alcohol lamp when I used a wooden "fuming cabinet." After being sealed up for about 24 hours, the thymol has killed the fungus. You'll want to do this in your garage or outside, thymol has a pungent, clove like smell that's not too great either. The odor dimishes as time passes though, unlike the funky smell of mold and mildew.

I should also mention that should anyone do this, another reason to do it outside or in the garage is because thymol is not exactly a benign chemical. In years past, restorers could sometimes be cavalier about chemical dangers which we are now more careful about. Use a respirator and chemical resistant gloves when adding thymol to the cabinet and removing the materials.

Maybe instead of using a very harsh chemicals just for smell just try some auto/car strength febreze for the smell,just take the lps out from the jackets. The mold is another issue and you will need a stronger chemical, just do it in an open space.

Photon - Thanks for the tip - that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, but had no idea how to find. Really cool website.