<HTML>To both Brian and Avery: A letter written by a qualified, and I presume both of you are qualified, piano technician stating that a piano which has been subjected to the amount of water that both of you describe, should, "in my professional opinion," be declared a complete loss. If the insurance company is not satisfied with one technician's answer, then have them pay for a second opinion. Just make sure they call another "qualified technician," and not just some guy who once read a book on how a piano works. One thing to remember, and I have spoken of this many times before. Insurance is supposed to pay to restore an item to the condition the item was in before the accident happened, or pay for a new one if the insured has replacement value insurance, which most of them do. This is true in cases of fire, floods, broken water pipes, earthquakes, etc. In both of these cases, however, too much water was brought in contact with the piano to repair either one of them, period. It is impossible. The pianos might dry out, but the long term effect of the water damage is unknown. It might take 10 years before the real damage might be discovered, like rusty wires, loose glue joints, and cracked soundboards. By then the claim will be closed, and the customer will never get their money out of the insurance company. Willem </HTML>