Flooded Pianos

[MoodyPianoInc@aol.com]

Hi List,

I've been reading over the archives hoping to find my answer there but I have 
been finding differing answers.

A friend of mine has 2 pianos in her finished basement.  Both pianos were old 
and definitely needed some work but she was very conciencious about having 
them tuned regularly and they still did play well and held their tuning 
nicely.

This past weekend her home was flooded.  She received approx. 2 feet of water 
in her basement.  Of the two pianos, the first was a Winter & Co. Spinet from 
1946.  This piano was on a landing about 6" below the other piano so it 
received the brunt of the water, over 2', possibly up to 2 1/2' of water.  
They were trying to dry the piano out but you could see that the piano was 
shot, the action and keys were all warped and the soundboard and bridges were 
still moist.  This one is pretty much a no brainer about junking it.

However, the other piano is a 1912 A.J. Jackson Full Upright.  Again, the 
piano was in fair shape beforehand (as an instrument...case was pretty beat 
up) but it did play and tuned well.  This piano was sitting in about 2' of 
water.  This piano felt dry to the touch inside (as opposed to the spinet) 
and still played.  There is a noticeable water line and the vineer and is 
pulling away wherever it sat in water.  I was suprised that even the bass 
strings still played and sounded nice.  Even though everything did still play 
well I noticed that the bass bridge was cracking along the top row of bridge 
pins.  I would think this to be a problem of age rather than water...right?

Insurance will not cover this as it was flood water however the flood may 
have been caused by some negligence on the town so they may (I stress may) 
still be able to get some compensation.

What type of replacement value would one put on these pianos?  Would you also 
taking removal of the old pianos and delivery of replacements into 
consideration?

For the upright, should we expect that the piano will begin to fall apart as 
time goes on?  If she decides that she wants to keep the full upright, is 
there a waiting period (like 1 or 2 years) that if nothing happens its okay?

Being a friend of mine I'm just trying to get her as much information as 
possible and would appreciate any responses.

Thanks!

~Lanie