How To Store a Piano

Pianos are beautiful, intricate instruments. Odds are that getting one cost you an arm and a leg. So when you need to store it, you want to be as careful as possible. You see, for something so heavy, a piano is actually very fragile. There are specific steps you need to take if you want to store it properly. So what’s the best way to store a piano? Here’s the skinny.

The Move Before You Store a Piano

Before you even start thinking about storing your piano, you have to figure out how to move it into storage. It’s a big instrument, after all, weighing up to 1,000 pounds, not to mention that it’s brittle, too. So moving it on your own is pretty much out of the question.

The best thing to do here is to simply hire the most capable piano movers Florida can offer you. They have the tools to provide safe transportation and the skill to use them properly.

Not only that, but plenty of professional movers can also hook you up with storage space – exactly what you need for your piano. We’ll get into what kind of storage you need a little later on, but suffice it to say that storage FL moving companies offer are a great solution for your need.

Clean Your Piano Thoroughly

You need to make sure your piano is cleaned from top to bottom before you commit it to storage. This means getting rid of all the grime and dust you can. This might take a while, but it’s all worth keeping your instrument safe from harm.

You’ll also want to protect the keys and strings from extensive storage conditions. You can use a sort of action oil and apply it to the keys, felts, and rail pins. Once you’re done applying the oil, feel free to play the piano a couple of times to let the oil settle in.

That just leaves us with the outside: the lid, fallboard, and the remainder of the piano case. This is a simple matter of using a polish and giving the surfaces a good once-over. Having done all of this, you’ll ensure that you prepare a piano for storage safe from corroding dirt.

To Store a Piano Safely, Climate Control Is a Must 

Pianos are delicate, and even a slight change in their shape can impact how they sound, (usually for the worse). And anyone that has wooden instruments (pianos, guitars, violins, and many more) in their home knows that the climate can really affect them. Things like extreme temperatures and air moisture can swell or bend the wood a piano is made of, distorting it and potentially ruining it.

That’s why you need very specific conditions in the room where you store a piano. If you’re moving from California to Florida, for example, you’ll notice a distinct rise in air humidity. Whenever you move a piano, you need to take these things into account. Generally speaking, you need a low-moisture environment at a temperature of at least 69 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now, some places don’t really provide the optimal setting on their own (Florida could be an example of one such place). As you’ve probably already learned, you can’t really control the weather. Luckily, though, there are storage options that come with climate control. Seek those out by contacting moving companies in your area.

Never Store a Piano on its Side

If the point hasn’t been hammered in enough quite yet, here it is again: pianos are heavy and vulnerable. As such, you have to be very careful about what position you’re storing a piano in. It does weigh hundreds of pounds, after all, and it’s designed to support all that weight in one specific position. Of course, that position is the one in which it always stands: right side up.

Therefore, putting your piano in storage on its side is a really bad idea. The piano will basically crush itself over time, which you probably don’t want to happen. This applies whether you store or move your piano in a relocation. But if you hire the right cross country movers Miami has in store, they’ll definitely know how to handle your instrument.

Wrap the Piano Well

In all likelihood, your piano will be in storage for a very long time. You should do what you can to keep it safe from dust and insects, among other things. That means you’ll have to do some wrapping.

The best materials for you to “pack” a piano are blankets and plastic wrapping. Firstly, you ought to wrap the piano with a layer of plastic. This will guarantee that dust or pests won’t find their way to the instrument. Make sure that you wrap the plastic around the piano tightly, and don’t forget the legs, either.

It’s recommended that you put this layer before you get to the transportation stage to protect the piano from fingerprints and scratches that may come about when you transport it. This is especially important if you’re moving across great distances. You can hire one of the many long distance movers Tampa has to offer, and they will probably do the wrapping for you.

All the same, once you’ve got the plastic secured around the instrument, the blankets are up next. You can use more than one blanket to ensure the piano’s properly covered. In case you want to store a piano for a long amount of time, you can peel off the plastic. That’s because the plastic can end up stuck to the surface, making it a pain to remove.

Keep the Piano Away From Outside Walls

Outside walls are in direct contact with the outside, making them more susceptible to temperature changes than the inside ones. Assuming you’re keeping your piano in a place that doesn’t have climate control, this could damage it. To that end, you should always store a piano next to an inside wall, which fluctuates less temperature-wise.