David I'm not an expert on poly finishes, but from the looks of it, I would suspect that after the pianos were loaded on a truck, the truck sat for several days in subzero weather, causing the finish to crack. This might be situation where the moving company will have to pay for the damage. But with as much damage as there is, it might be better for the insurance to replace the pianos. A similar, although totally different scenario happened to one of my clients. A S&S M was taken from St. Louis to Florida. The piano was in perfect condition, but the moving company allowed the piano to sit in a truck for several weeks in Florida during the summer. As a result, the soundboard cracked. The moving company paid for a new piano. Wim -----Original Message----- From: David Heidel <dbheidel at comcast.net> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Tue, Jul 6, 2010 5:34 am Subject: [pianotech] pianos damaged by moving? I usually just sit back and read everyone’s postings, but now I need your help. An insurance company has beckoned me to figure out what has caused the damage to 2 pianos that were moved from Alaska to Washington in February. The owner claims these pianos were in perfect condition before the move. They were loaded by actual piano movers onto a moving van. Both have Dampp- Chaser units on them. In my short tenure (8 years) of being around pianos, I have never run across this situation before and could use some help in figuring out what might have caused the damage. Could a combination of extreme cold and a 5-day move have caused this? As a side note, the owner also has a Suzuki digital grand (Costco) that sustained no damage at all on the case (unfortunately). Hopefully, the pictures are good enough to see some of the damage. Piano #1 - Young Chang grand, model G-208, serial # G 104337, built in 1996. The piano had 3 long cracks in the polyester finish on the lid, extending the entire width of the lid. The cracks are located on the front, middle and rear of the lid. The plate of this piano has hundreds of small cracks in the finish, located throughout the entire plate. Piano #2 - K. Kawai grand, model KG-5, serial # 479922, built in 1970 (but looks newer – and I didn’t think Kawai used poly finishes back then). The piano had numerous cracks in the finish, of various lengths and patterns, over the entire lid, going in all directions. The music desk also had cracks in the finish. The plate had cracks in the finish, as well as the finish separating from the cast iron. The entire soundboard showed hundreds of cracks in it, giving the appearance of "cracked ice". There was also one crack in the soundboard that was actually in the wood, extending for about 2 feet. Also noted were cracks in the wood where the soundboard and the rim of the piano are connected. There were 4 keytops that also had cracks in the plastic. David Heidel, RPT Heidel Piano Services Spokane, WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100706/d72833d4/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 12590 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100706/d72833d4/attachment-0004.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 43971 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100706/d72833d4/attachment-0005.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 23610 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100706/d72833d4/attachment-0006.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 6982 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100706/d72833d4/attachment-0007.jpeg>
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