Repairing or rebuilding a water damaged cabinet?

[Simski]

Hi

In earli July my hometown of Copenhagen, Denmark was hit by really nasty weather and the basement where I kept my speaker cabinets were flooded with water from the sewers. Only now have I been able to really go through the damage and clean up everything.

Needless to say, it was pretty nasty. Since I do not have any cabinets now, I have to make some quick decisions about how to proceed. The cabinets in question are both Ashdown, one of them is an old 1 15" and 2 10" units.

I have left them outside to dry off but have taken apart the large cabinet, I can now see that the wood sides have taken it badly and mold has started to grow. Not alot but it worries me. The tolex has started to come apart some places too. The smaller cabinet is the same.

As I see it, I have two options: One is to really clean off the cabinets, air dry them and try to replace electronics that may have stopped functioning. The other option is to take out the speakers and just build new cabinets for them. As it happens, I never liked the design of the bp1510 cab, so this may be blessing in disguise. A very good disguise nonetheless. It would also appear that the ABM cab is so well put together that I won't be able to take it apart cleanly anyway.

Sigh. What would you recommend?

[will33]

If they sat wet that long, the glue that holds the individual plys in the plywood is likely weak/compromised. Even if you dried them totally they still wouldn't be good. If the speakers are still good you could try cutting them above the water/soak line and grafting on new bottoms, building clones and use the speakers in them or just call it a loss and get what few bucks you can out of them and look for different cabs.

[Simski]

Well, this happened a month ago and when I got down there today, the BP1510 still had a few liters of water in the bottom. I think/hope the waterline was below the 15" unit but I am not sure. The speakers seem to be fine but again, I am not sure. Probably won't be till I plug them into the amp.

[mikeddd]

Sorry, but it sounds like a complete loss to me. Sometimes, electronics that are not plugged in at the time of exposure to water can be disassembled and left to dry and they work fine. You've got wooden cabs that sat submerged/in a wet basement for a month. If they've got mold on them, all the more reason to junk them. Sorry but I think you have to cut your losses on this one.

This is one of the reasons you rarely see a data center/server room on the lowest floor of a building. Gravity. Water always will find it's way to the lowest floor.

[Simski]

That's what I thought, perhaps did not want to admit it. Will probably salvage the speakers anyway and see what can be done with them and if they're broke, start saving up for a new cabinet I can have in the apartment. Thanks for your input

[JimmyM]

I'm inclined to agree with Mike. Although it's possible to get rid of mold with bleach, considering the speaker cones are made of paper, I can't see much good coming out of them. Sorry that happened.

[Simski]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I'm inclined to agree with Mike. Although it's possible to get rid of mold with bleach, considering the speaker cones are made of paper, I can't see much good coming out of them. Sorry that happened.

Yeah, I'm sorry too. We Danes have been used to nothing out of the ordinary happening, so when something bad actually does happen, all hell breaks loose.

Regarding the speakers, the water did not rise above say 30 cm, so the upper speakers were not submerged. They may have become moist but not soaking wet. So there is a slight hope. A fool's hope maybe but still a hope.

[will33]

There's a fair chance whatever's above the waterline is ok. Before you plug in and play them, have a good look at all the seams where the different parts of the speaker is glued together. Little superglue will fix loose seams. They can take some humidity, being totally soaked.....not so much.