water damage

[Wippen@aol.com]

I had a similar occurance about 15 years ago at my University.A 7 foot Yamaha
grand stood under a leaking roof for a entire week-end. My gut reaction was
that the instrument was trashed, but budgets being what they are I was forced
to deal with the situation as best as possible. After drying the piano out in
a not too warm room,for about 2 weeks, the only overt damage was to the key
bushings,which swelled up and fell out,mostly. There were,of course sticking
flanges,dampers,and such but I treated them as you would any tight center.
The key bushings were replaced,key tops cleaned,regulation was gone
over,tuning. In short, the piano was put back into service. Apparently, not a
great amount of water reached the pin block or soundboard.
I certainly am not suggesting you could expect the same results with your
piano. We all know that every situation is different,but, I can tell you that
our Yamaha did not develop any further problems on down the road and
continued to sound and feel great. It is used daily in our Choral ensemble
room.

I did rebuild the action,install a new pinblock and restring in 1993 but my
guess is that as dry as our building is, the piano would have been due for it
even if the water damage had not occured. Good Luck!!

Paul Dempsey
Marshall University
wippen.aol.com