Pianos Under Water

[Allan L. Gilreath, RPT]

Lewis,

Glad to hear you made it through unscathed, my friend.  In my experience
dealing with flooded pianos, part of my client base is in a river valley,
vertical pianos would have to have been awfully special to warrant
rebuilding. I haven't had any completely underwater but just up on the
bottom portion, not quite to the keybed.  After a little bit of time, the
hide glue joints started pulling loose and the veneer peeled pretty badly.
Grands, if not totally submerged, may be far more salvageable.  Finish work,
particularly on the legs and lyre with special work on the mechanical
portion of the lyre could be a possibility.  As I tell folks over here,
pianos, especially older ones, really don't like water.  Given the potential
for future development of problems, I think I would tend to err on the side
of discretion.

See you in High Point,

Allan
Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
Assistant Institute Director
PTG Annual Convention
Arlington, VA July 5-9, 2000
Agilreath@mindspring.com
706 629-3063
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Lewis Spivey
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 9:07 PM
To: Pianoteck
Subject: Pianos Under Water

Hi List,

Greetings from down under, not the equator but from Floyd's flood waters in
Eastern North Carolina, USA.  While I am high and dry, hundreds if not
thousands of pianos in my area have been swimming without scuba gear. Many
have been completely submerged for days and while others have only gotten
their legs or bottoms wet.  In my 25 plus years of piano service nothing
like this has ever been a problem.  Do any of you have experience with
flooded pianos. Are pianos that have under water rebuildable.  Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

Lewis Spivey, RPT
Eastern North Carolina, USA