Slightly wet cabs...What should I be doing?

mhkohne

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I've got 3 cabs in my basement: Assault, Qix, and a Neo-Geo wood-grain. Overnight Irene dumped enough water in the area that my sump pumps couldn't keep up. Looking at the walls there was an inch or less of water in the basement. Note the my de-humidifier broke a while back and the new one won't be here for a few days.

Most of the stuff in the basement is either in plastic boxes or off the floor in some way, so the only things that I care about that got wet are the cabs.

What should I be doing to these cabs to minimize damage?

Thanks!
 
wet vac, towels, try and put them up on cinder blocks if you have the people or means to do so put a fan on them if you can also to help with drying.
 
If they are not yet out of the water then get them out now! Longer they sit in water the more water they will suck up. I'm guessing they are all particle board cabs so you will probably have some swelling that really can't be fixed short of a restore with sanding and repaint etc. Basically dry them asap. Heat, fans, whatever will remove the moisture as quick as possible.
 
If they are not yet out of the water then get them out now! Longer they sit in water the more water they will suck up. I'm guessing they are all particle board cabs so you will probably have some swelling that really can't be fixed short of a restore with sanding and repaint etc. Basically dry them asap. Heat, fans, whatever will remove the moisture as quick as possible.

Oh the water was gone by the time I found out what happened this morning - the problem was just that the amount of water that came down was more than the sump pumps could handle for a while overnight, so the water built up a bit in the basement. By the time I got downstairs this morning they had already cleared the decks, the floor was just a bit wet, but no longer with significant standing water.

I don't think we even had any power loss last night, I think it's just that even with the primary and backup pumps running the amount of water was too much at one time (ground was already saturated when the storm hit).

I've got them up on 2x4s and I'm doing what I can to dry the basement - can't open the main doors yet because we've still got more wind & rain on the way, but I should be able to open up tomorrow if not sooner. As it is, I've got my one fan moving the air as best it can. My new de-humidifier will be here thursday or sooner, and I'll see if I can get some damp-rid to put in cabs tomorrow.
 
you need at least one fan per game, coindoors open, backdoors off, get as much air moving across them as possible. It will take several days before they are really dry. THe mdf cabs can take over a week to dry out completely. Once you think they are dry, let fan run at least one more day.

a test for a mdf cab, use a screwdriver or something, inside the cab push down on the wood with the screwdriver. If you see damn wood or water coming up arond where your pressing, its still soaked inside.

old furnace blower motors work best, or mabye you could rent some squirrel cage fans/carpet dryers.
 
As I was watching on tv, the hurricane move along the east coast, I was wondering how many classics were going to be destroyed by this.
But then, my priorities might be out of synch. :)
 
Fortunately, the water didn't get too high, so the Qix and Assault were both dry inside (the Qix has that nice riser on it that was pretty beat anyway, and Assault sits on a kind of platform that apparently the water didn't get over). The Neo-Geo does have a wet bottom internally, so I've got the one fan I have pointed in there. I'll get some Damp-rid tomorrow and put in there, along with more fans. I'll have to tear the back off of that guy - it doesn't have a 'door', the back is just screwed on because you don't usually need to get in there. Perhaps this will be impetus to start really restoring that cab. Perhaps it will get a small riser like the Taito's have...

Thanks guys!
 
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