• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Basement flooded! ....

P

panaran

Dec 1, 2008
256
0
#1
Long story short...my basement flooded bout a month ago with all of my guitar gear down there. All of my gear got wet, however not all was a total loss. My favorite Ibanez was toast tho, neck got soggy and cracked. Insurance covered all the damaged goods and cut me a check for $2,689 so not all was lost.

One of the things that got wet was my GK 410GLX. water came up right to the woofers but, but they didnt get wet. The cab still plays 100%, however the bottom is warped a little. I just bought an Avatar cab so I was going to sell this. I turn it over on its back (with the woofers pointed up) to take a close pic of the warped bottom because I wanted the potential buyers to know exactly what happend when i notice....uhh...MOLD! theres cotton ball fluffy looking mold in the lower slot style port hole. It smells like moldy ass when you get up close to it. I removed the woofers immediately as i did not want them to get contaminated with any of the mold. Im currently spraying disinfectant in there to try and get rid of it. Sucks because other than the warping at the bottom, the rest of the cab is still tip top and plays like new. (it was less than a year old and never gigged.)

I was just wondering if there was a big market for woofers like the GK GLX series as i would probably only be selling those if I cant get the cab cleaned up. Woofers are in great shape, almost brand new. What do you guys think i should do?


Note: This is not a for sale thread, and should I decide to try and sell them on here, I will purchase the 'donating member' status or whatever so mods, please don't close this thread.
 
#3
The best real advice:

Get a breathing mask and gloves for this. Please..

Tear off the carpet, sand of the remaining glue and mold on the wood with an orbital sander. I also suggest a heat gun to cook the glue off..use a paint scraper too..youll see it bubble up, just before you start burning the wood. This takes a day or 2 in itself.

Now with as much glue and mold off the wood. Use a mold,moss killing sanding sealer and apply that to the cabinet. During the process of this whole ordeal you might find seperations, cracks and swelling of the wood...repair as you go.

get NEW carpet, and cut to size. you can use the old carpet for templates.


I know this seems like alot and overkill...but I have seen over 25 moldy cabinets in my time. Untreated, it will just go out in the trash, or permanently stink up the basement or garage..and if it stinks up the basement..the mold is now out of the box..so to speak.

Anything less is a no go. The reason is the mold STARTED in the wood and not the carpet..the carpet is artifical mostly...the mold is only using it like a vine to a cinder wall.

And mold will make you sick. I have done this before and while its a task, its also good excersize and its something to do if you need something to do.

DO NOT spray down the cabinet as it is with some kind of kitchen all around mold killer...it will NOT work. the mold is INSIDE the wood. and you will soak the wood with that junk and mess it up more.

Last: speakers...unless you like the goldlines..I suggest something else. I put rbh 10",s in my gold line 210 and added an aluminum 5" for highs..works great...a little heavy, but killer sound and worth it.
 
#7
bassninja7 said:
wait.
so your basement flooded and you just found out about it?!?!

for me the moment i started seeing water, id move all my gear ASAP!!!

why didnt you move any of it?!
Click to expand...

Haha no, it didn't just happen. I live in Chicago and about a month or so ago we had a good amount of snow outside. it warmed up, melted all the snow, AND we got a pretty big thunderstorm on top of that. I have 2 sump pumps hooked up to a computer controlled battery backup but one of them failed and it was too much water for just one.

It was around Xmas time and I was visiting relatives for a few days so when I returned home to find the mess, I moved all of my stuff out immediately. You ever tried to carry a water logged 410bass cab up a flight of stairs by yourself? Not fun haha. From what i estimate my gear was sitting in water for about a day before I returned home to find the mess.

I put everything in front of every fan I could find and dried most of it out, but by that time the wood was so saturated, it warped a little.

I'm just posting this now because I just discovered the mold growing inside the cab. I have another 115 cab that I havn't checked yet but I assume its the same situation. Insurance came out and gave me retail price for everything that was damaged so its not the end of the world. These speakers are still in 100% mint condition and I didnt want them to go to waste as somebody can get some good use out of them, I just didnt know if there was a big market for this kind of thing.


Also Chicago Mike, thanks for the advice. I was thinking I would end up having to do something like that. I just have to decide if its worth it to me to try and clean it out, as that would take up a lot of my time. I might give it a quick shot of bleach and whatnot to at least stop the growth temporatily and see if anybody else wants to buy it cheap and take on that task. but most likely ill end up tossing it out and selling the woofers. Insurance covered it anyway so I wouldnt really be at a loss.
 
#11
Rick Auricchio said:
Perhaps the easiest and safest thing is to sell the speakers. Remove them, leave them around a while to ensure they have no mold, and sell 'em.

The cabinet can go into the landfill. You were reimbursed for it.
Click to expand...

yeah thats pretty much what Ive been planing. I removed the woofers as soon as i saw the mold, and after careful examination, I didnt see any mold on them. They were above the waterline to begin with so Im fairly confident they were safe. I was reimbursed for the cab, so thats why im not too worried about it.
 
#12
Huh. While I do appreciate the caution expressed about not messing around with mold, it is very bad stuff, I have to tell you-the same thing happened to me, and I was able to kill it off with Lysol, the heavy-duty institutional variety. It took several heavy applications, and scrubbing/vacuuming(with a mask on) afterwards, but I was able to kill it, without removing the rat fur. This was 3 years ago and it hasn't regrown. I understand that spores are probably still in the wood, but it hasn't regrown. No smell either. I went out of my way to save it since it is a vintage SWR cab, pre Fender and all that. Seems OK so far, but YMMV.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back