<HTML>In a message dated 7/23/01 9:55:21 AM Central Daylight Time, purdy@oak.cats.ohiou.edu writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Could some of you elaborate on your guidelines in making an insurance assessment of a smoke damaged piano.  I am worried about long term damage, odor removal, corrosive effects of ozone treatment, glue joints after the steam present, and anything else I need to consider.  At what point do I total the piano?  This is a Baldwin that is only several years old.  Some posts in the archives say smoke, steam, and ozone have minimal effects and some stress long term problems will ruin the piano.  Are there any clear guidelines to use? </BLOCKQUOTE> Chris I presume you mean a Baldwin grand. I don't know if what I have been promoting is considered anything official, but here is what I recommend when I inspect a smoke damaged grand piano. It is my contention that smoke and especially soot, is a corrosive agent that penetrates everything in the piano. This stuff gets into the felts, under the strings on bridges around tuning pins and into the hammers and dampers. There is no way to remove the smoke smell and the soot from under strings and out of felts. Therefore, these parts have to be replaced. The insurance company wants to know two things, the value of the piano before the fire and how much is it going to cost to repair it. If the repairs are more than the value, the insurance company will total the instrument, and give the customer a check for the value of the piano. If the repairs are less, and the customer wants to have the work done, then the insurance company will have the work done. If the piano is in the room where the temperature reached about 500 degrees or more, there is also a good chance the glue joints will be compromised. This should also be taken into consideration when looking at the piano. One problem, as I see it, is that some of problems associated with damage from a fire is that some of the problems don't show up until 5 or even 10 years later. In most cases, the claim is settled, by then, and there is no way the owner can get the insurance to pay for damage then. In any case, you said this is a newer instrument. The customer expected the piano to last 75 - 100 years. You need to determine if the fire reduce the life expectancy of the piano? The other question that needs to be answered is, did the fire reduce the aesthetic value of the piano? Does it look the same, not just that case, but also the strings, felts, etc.? I hope this helps. Wim    </HTML>