Mold, fungus, etc. damage to equipment.

[ZanaZulu807]

How will this affect equipment? A tree recently fell on my home and along with the gaping hole in the roof came in all of the crap of the great outdoors. My gear was sitting in the house for nearly a week before I could go in and get everything out. Upon entering, I noticed mold, fungus, and general filth had grown in the immediate area of damage, and my gear only a few feet away in a room facing the molded areas covered in a wet cloud of insulation.

Some things I notice with my stuff is that all the basses necks are bowed, the amp's cabinet speakers are discolored, and my effects appear okay but the board I had them on is surrounded by green gunk, I'm assuming that came from the wet carpet. My question is how bad will this affect my stuff for the long run and should try to I sanitize all of my stuff or should I buy new stuff as its insured and not risk further damaging some classic/old/great gear.

[Rocky McD]

I would certainly try to get a good settlement from your insurance (if possible)

[rcarraher]

Originally Posted by ZanaZulu807

How will this affect equipment? A tree recently fell on my home and along with the gaping hole in the roof came in all of the crap of the great outdoors. My gear was sitting in the house for nearly a week before I could go in and get everything out. Upon entering, I noticed mold, fungus, and general filth had grown in the immediate area of damage, and my gear only a few feet away in a room facing the molded areas covered in a wet cloud of insulation.

Some things I notice with my stuff is that all the basses necks are bowed, the amp's cabinet speakers are discolored, and my effects appear okay but the board I had them on is surrounded by green gunk, I'm assuming that came from the wet carpet. My question is how bad will this affect my stuff for the long run and should try to I sanitize all of my stuff or should I buy new stuff as its insured and not risk further damaging some classic/old/great gear.

Well, if insurance will cover it, get it replaced. That said I have had two experiences like this. On involved a fire in a churck music room (really a small studio/auditorium). The fire fighters got everything soaked in water and checmicals naturally, and then there was the heat. My job was to evaluate the euipment for replacement for the church (I'm an electrical engineer) Other than scorched cabinets and soot, most of the stuff just needed disassebled and washed out real well with electro wash and in this case, bleach water (we used distilled water) to kill any fungus. I did alot of research with component manufactures etc...and the heat was the least of out worries, but the chemicals the fire department used can be corrosive. We replaced things like mics and speaker cabs because new was cheaper than fixing cabinets and reconing speakers, but everything else was fine. After one year not a single salvaged piece of equipment had failed or had any complaints about sound quality. Another time I salvaged over 100 PC's and servers after they had been underwater for over a week when the Missouri River flooded an air base. Getting the mud out was the hard part, but we saved everything except things like fans. Even the hard drives were fine.