Flood Damage Advice

[Lance Lafargue]

Avery,
Just a related comment about damages.  We had a huge flood May 8, 1995.  I
did over 50 estimates.  On some of the uprights in just a few inches of
water
with rust on the bottoms of the bass strings, I cleaned them up and brushed
on CRC to the plain wire section.  This closes the pores of the metal and
stops the rusting.  It will help with those pianos not getting restringing,
etc.  I'm sure you'll see some.  Stock up on Dampp-Chasers. %~)
Lance Lafargue, RPT
Mandeville, LA
New Orleans Chapter, PTG
lancelafargue@bellsouth.net

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
Of Avery Todd
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 3:11 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Flood Damage Advice


List,

For those of you who read my original post, the university
music dept. is OK. Thankfully. I had to move 2 D's out of a
small recital hall because it did get water in it. Not standing
water, but the humidity was about 200%. :-)

Anyway, I'd just like a little confirmation of something else.

I was called out to look at a grand that had had some flood
damage. My instinct is to tell them to "salvage" it. The water
line on the case was about 33-1/2" from the floor. That
means that the entire keyboard and action was in water. And
it was very obvious. As far as I can determine, the soundboard
wasn't in the water, but according to my measurements, the
water couldn't have been much more than 1/8" below it. Which
is also about the same measurement below the pin block.

There are already veneer/case joints coming apart/showing
symptoms on the legs and pedal lyre. The piano is a Kawai
KG-1, app. 5' type, bought about 9 yrs. ago.

The keyboard is swollen into one solid mass, the hammers
are up so high that the action cannot be removed, etc. I
opened it up as much as possible, told them to put a box
fan in front of it, and "we'll see what happens".

Am I wrong in recommending that they write it off and get
a new one? They do have flood insurance and my understanding
is that that means replacement cost, not depreciated cost.

Any comments/advice would be welcome. Thanks.

Avery