Urunga Library: Restoring Air Quality and Protecting the Collection

Urunga Library is a central community facility on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, hosting community activities and housing a book and archive collection.

Over time the building developed mould and damp odours that affected staff comfort and put the stored collection at risk.

Results at a Glance

• 6 months to reported results
• 5 units plus professional remediation fogging
• 4 problem areas identified across floor, subfloor, walls and ceiling
• Subfloor dry and free of mould

The Challenge

Moisture Cure was invited to assess the building and provide a durable solution, drawing on the earlier Bellingen Shire Council project in the same region.

The Building Health Evaluation identified four contributing problems:

• Strong mould odour throughout the library floor
• Damp subfloor areas with visible mould growth
• Moisture present in timber flooring, wall linings and parts of the ceiling
• Older books producing mould-related off-gassing into the occupied space

Together these created an unhealthy indoor environment and an active risk to the collection. Any one of them treated alone would have left the others running.

Our Approach: Building Health Evaluation

Moisture readings were recorded across multiple areas of the building rather than at a single point.

That mapping is what separated the subfloor load from the off-gassing load, and it determined how the equipment was split between the two.

The evaluation produced:

• A moisture profile across floor, subfloor, walls and ceiling
• A remediation sequence, so surfaces were treated before the control equipment was set to its running condition
• A moisture control plan sized to the building rather than to the room count

The Solution

The specification addressed airborne contamination and structural dampness as two connected problems.

The installed system:

• Two Inovaair E20 Plus air purifiers providing continuous filtration to reduce airborne mould spores in the occupied library
• One RYCM-90 portable commercial dehumidifier extracting moisture from the larger enclosed areas
• Two FDK-44 commercial subfloor dehumidifiers managing dampness under the floor
• Professional mould remediation fogging treating contaminated surfaces and stopping regrowth

A portable refrigerant unit suited the main floor because the space is occupied, temperate and needs flexible placement around library operations.

Results After Six Months

Reported outcomes:

• Library staff report cleaner air and a significant reduction in mould odour
• Subfloor areas are dry and free of mould
• Books and archives are protected from further moisture damage
• Staff and visitors are using the building normally again

The project shows that a measured, staged approach to moisture control can turn a public building around without rebuilding it.

Why This Matters for Libraries and Public Spaces

Libraries combine three risk factors that rarely appear together elsewhere.

Those factors are:

• High occupancy and long opening hours
• Ageing construction materials with limited subfloor ventilation
• A hygroscopic collection that both absorbs moisture and releases it back into the room

Paper and board buffer humidity, which means a collection can hold a moisture problem in place long after the source is fixed. That is why remediation and ongoing control were specified together here.

Related Solutions

• humidity management for libraries and archives. Collection storage needs stable humidity, not just dry air.
• portable commercial dehumidifiers. Portable refrigerant units suit occupied, temperate spaces where placement has to work around normal operations.

Damp or Mould in a Community Building

Libraries, community centres and halls rarely fail all at once. They drift, and the collection pays for it first.

Contact Moisture Cure Commercial for a Building Health Evaluation and a moisture management plan built on measured readings.

Contact Moisture Cure Commercial for expert sizing advice on your application.