<HTML>In a message dated 1/31/03 2:25:54 AM !!!First Boot!!!, mcpiano@globetrotter.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Well, he is supposed to send me a list of product I could try to get in Canada to clean the wood parts, and he talked about building a tent to fumigate the action (Thermo-fogging). There were 24 pianos affected. Some of them not even worth tuning mind you. This estimate just bugs me. I whish I could just tell them to junk these. I find it stupid to spend money to repair (remove odor) pianos that are not worth tuning (some of them I've refused to tune for over 2 years). Well, who ever said that life was perfect. I guess they wer lucky. The firemen covered the pianos before putting out the fire, and since the fire was between the roof and the ceiling, most of the heat went out. The pianos were taken out very rapidly and the humidity level was brought down to 40% within 48 hrs. I still have to make an estimate of repairs for the insurance people and I don't like it at all. Marcel </BLOCKQUOTE> Marcel. You are obviously the "expert" when it come to the pianos. Regardless of where the fire was, the heat, and especialy and humidity of the water putting out the fire, was enough to rust the strings, and damge the felts inside the pianos. When you give your estimete, don't just cocer the outide of the piano. Put down that each piano has to be restrung, that it needs new damper felts, and regualtion, new hammers, new felt punching under the keys, and compelte regualtion, etc. etc. In other words, make the repair estimates high enough so that you can either completely rebuild these intrumetns, or they are forced to buy buy new ones. You are not cheating the insurance company. The school paid for the insurance, and you can bet your bottom dollar, that the insurance compnay is going to try to cheat the school every chance they get. Hold firm on your estimate. Don't let the insurance company talk you out of anything. If the school wants to use the money for the pianos for toher projects, thats another story. But the inuracen compnay owes it to the shcool to either repair the instrumetns, or replace. them. Wim </HTML>