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Flood! Help!

pjmuck

pjmuck

Feb 8, 2006
1,183
68
New Joisey
www.naughtyhumphrey.com
#1
I came home this evening to find my sump pump died after failing to handle the amount of rain we've been having and a basement filled with 6" of water. Unfortunately, I keep my equipment down there! The basses werre stored upright but water got into the bottom of the cases. I scramlbed to get them out of there and wiped them down, but the cases are soaked. Likewise, about 4" from the boom of my amp was submerged and other electronics, power strips, etc. Any immediate advice to make sure I can slavage as much as possible? ASAP please.

Thanks
 
#2
Don't turn on any of the electronic stuff. Get the cases out of there and open them so they can dry and not get moldy. Take the basses out of them too just in case. What happens to your amp really depends on if the water got in it, and where it got in it. If it didn't really touch the speakers, it shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm not really sure how to go about all of this.

Good luck.
 
#5
ok.. what's the finish on the basses?? And what kind of cases were the basses in?

If the basses have a hard finish on them, then they should be fine as long as the water didnt reach, say, the bridge, where water might be able to find its way into the wood and make it expand, damaging the finish.

The cases might be soaked because of capillarity as well, so start by taking the basses out.

Any damage should be evident by now, if they look OK you are in luck. I would not dry the basses with silica, hot air, or anything like that, just let them stabilize. They already absorbed moisture but are out of danger.

Also, open them up to see if the electronics are damp. These you can dry, no problem the general state of the control cavity should be a good indicator as well.
 
#7
No advice on the finish and wood other then wipe it down and dry it well. As far as the electronics go, let everything dry out real well before you even attempt to fire it up.

We had amps and such that submerged during Katrina down here, that after a couple months drying out, fired right up.

If your amps submerged, it would be good to have a tech go over them.

As far as speakers, if they submerged, you may have to replace them. Examine the bottom of your cabs that went under, water will weaken and destroy particle board type enclosures. Also, regular plywood will absorb the water and swell.

Make sure to examine everything and dry it all out as good as possible. I'd wait a month or more before firing up anything that submerged. A hair dryer will help to dry out wet wood also.

It all depends on how long it was submerged. If the electronics on your guitars/basses submerged, I'd have them opened and dried out (by a tech if you do not feel confident doing it.)

Good luck, and keep build shelves for those electronics and guitars/basses!

~r~
 
#8
Best thing you can do for wood / wood-fiber products is put them in a room with a dehumidifier or any type of A/C. You can use rags and the like to blot up as much moisture as possible. Heat guns, hair dryers, etc. should be avoided.

I won't even venture a guess as to the proper protocol for electronic devices.

Riis
 
#10
I have quite a lot of experience with this sort of thing as I am a Professional Water Damage Restorer by trade.

Are you renting or do you own the house? If you own, the first thing I would do is contact a rep from your insurance company and see what kind of coverage you have, what the deductible is, and weather it extends to the contents or just the physical structure of the home.

If you contract with a qualified water damage restoration firm ASAP, they should be able to take thorough and accurate moisture reading in the wet affected portions of the basses and test those reading against similar basses of the same wood type in your area. This isnt only important to establish how much if any elevated moisture levels are present, but it also will provide you with some essential documentation to present to your insurance adjuster to possibly work toward reimbursement of the value of these instruments if your insurance covers contents. I would'nt expect you to be able to support a claim like this without the official word of a licensed restoration contractor to back you up. Your insurance adjuster after all, is trying to justify the bare minimum of coverage to you at the core of his job. A restoration firm works to get you the max money you have coming.


If however you are renting without renters insurance, or your policy does'nt cover contents, a good water damage restorer should be able to present you with option on pricing to create a dry chamber either offsite where it can be monitored closely or in an upstairs room of your house if you can afford the price associated with this kind of service.

Feel free to PM me if you want a second opinion on what I think a reasonable out of pocket cost would be to do something like that. I have the same estimating software at my disposal that the insurance industry uses to set they're pricing.

Good luck!
 
#12
Take a dry cotton towel to the electronics while not applying force, "a little dab'll do ya," then place the amp or whatever electronic device very near, not on top, of a dry heat vent cover. I notice that you are located in NJ (cold) so it is likely you are heating the house drying time would be approx. one week and use discretion.
 
#14
Thank you everyone for your advice.

It looks like I may have dodged a bullet. I got the basses out of the cases quickly and wiped them down. They're in a temperature-controlled room now and I do not see any finish damage on any of them (i.e. bubbling up, etc), knock on wood. I haven't had time to open up their compartments or check under bridges, etc., as I've had so many other personal possessions I'm scrambling to salvage. I don't believe the water got high enough to go past the bridges anyway, but I plan on checking them as time allows. I haven't seen any water pooling under the basses yet since Saturday, so I'm assuming I'm okay for now.

The cases, however, clearly are soaked at the bottom, and I have various cases, gig bags, etc. Unfortunately, the only room I have for storing them right now is the garage, so they're out there opened until I can get them back inside to dry out/de-humidify. So far, I'm not smelling any mildew, so I hope I can stall this a little longer. Which brings me to my other problem: apparently the de-humidifier I already had in the basement got damaged in the flood, as it's kicking on and off but there's zero water in the bucket. I spent all day today looking for a new de-humidifier, and guess what? Everyone's out of stock. :scowl: So I'm not sure what I can do with them at this point beyond doing what I'm doing and possibly blow drying them one at a time.
 
#18
Well, just an update, for anyone who's interested and/or looking for how to deal with this kind of situation. I suspect insurance games are forthcoming. :scowl:

I had called my insurer the day after this happened to see how to best proceed. I mentioned that I was still assessing damages/loss and doing my best to secure the area and salvage property. They told me it would be best to submit the claim after I knew what my damages were. I'm not sure how you go about doing that when it takes a week or more to determine what's damaged and what isn't, especially electronics, which I don't plan on firing up for another week or two.

Despite running the dehumidifier and fans 24-7 for the week thereafter, I started seeing, what appears to be, mold forming, so I got two environmental mold removal experts in to review the area. Both said here was nothing serious (yet), but that there was mold evident and they submitted proposals. I called my insurer today to discuss, and they immediately told me that they won't cover mold remediation because "I didn't report it soon enough." Huh. How can I report it before it exists or is evident (Or if your insurer tells you not to report until you're ready to file a claim?!). He suggested a service company through them that would come in and make sure moisture was completely gone (A service I didn't realize they offered, since I got my own experts in to assess the situation), and I spoke to that company today. They said it wasn't worth their time to come since it's been a couple of weeks and the two mold companies I had in said they found no areas of lingering moisture.

Now the adjuster is also putting off visiting to assess the damage until a week from tomorrow, which worries me because much of the damage visibility will be less apparent. So who's delaying who here?
 
#19
Man, that sucks. I hate dealing with insurance companies. It always feels like they are out to do the customer wrong.

I don't know how bad your damage was, but if your pickups were submerged and are having issues, I'd be happy to fix them for you. No charge for a fellow TB'er in need. I have a repair shop in Nashville, TN. Let me know if you need any help.
 
#20
bronzdragon said:
As far as speakers, if they submerged, you may have to replace them. Examine the bottom of your cabs that went under, water will weaken and destroy particle board type enclosures. Also, regular plywood will absorb the water and swell.
Click to expand...

I got the last two Eminence Beta 10B speakers (according to the distributor) in the country to reload my SWR Goliath Junior II. Awesome to have a 210 that handles 500 watts... then we got a 1-in-35 year storm, that sent 2" of water through my music room. The bottom of the speakers got wet, but it took 6 months of gigging before one failed. Pretty much just peeled away from the frame in the middle of a gig.

So yes, if you are flood-prone, shelves are a good idea. I leave _nothing_ on the floor that I care about, including power boards.

c-
 

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