After a flood

[James McCormac]

Greetings,

I need some help from the collective experience of the piano list.

I recently examined a two-year-old Knabe WGK-70 - a six-foot grand piano
made by Samick.

While the owner was away on a trip, a toilet valve on the second floor began
to leak. The piano, on the first floor, did not come into direct contact
with the floodwater, but it was exposed to very high humidity in a closed
house for about two weeks. Restoration of the damage to the house involved
drying out the house with fans and dehumidifiers. Thus the piano went from
an environment of high humidity, to very low humidity, and finally a return
to the normal humidity of southern California.

I examined the piano ten days after "dry down." I found no damage to the
piano. The pin block is holding the pins at normal torque. The soundboard
shows no deformation or cracking. A pluck test at the mid-treble gave a
sustain of over ten seconds. I looked for rust particularly where the muting
felt touches the strings at the hitch end and did not find any corrosion.
The action needs regulation, but is not showing any ill effects.

As you might expect, the piano was wildly out of tune, being rather new and
going though extreme humidity changes.
It seems to me that this piano went through the annual humidity cycle of,
say, Kansas, but compressed into a three-week time span.

Having spent my piano technician career in southern California, I have not
had the experiences of those who live and work in more severe climates. This
leads me to ask several questions of those who do:
	Does the analogy of a compressed annual humidity cycle make sense?
	Is it likely that there is damage to this piano that will be revealed at
some time in the future?
	Or, finding no damage, is it reasonable to assume that the piano went
through a stressful episode but came though OK?
I would appreciate any insights from my colleagues - especially those east
of the Rocky Mountains.

Jim McCormac, RPT
Fallbrook, CA