Rolling Your Piano Across the Floor

Most pianos have casters. Why not just roll it across the living room floor, right? Well, not exactly. These casters were really designed to roll the piano a couple of feet, not to the other side of the house. Rolling your piano across the floor can be a small disaster! This can mark up your bare wood floors with slight scuffing or deep trails in pine floors. Your carpet could become discolored or snagged.

In some cases, while the happy couple is in "Superman" mode pushing as hard as they possibly can, the piano even get caught in a rut and actually dump over on it's back; it's kind of rare, but it does happen. This is extremely dangerous. It could land on someone's foot, leg or even "Whiskers" the cat! Many people have thrown their backs out trying to "catch" the piano out of instinct. (Even a small spinet piano weighs around 300 lbs. and that hurts when you catch them.)

Grand pianos usually have hefty casters, also. If an old grand piano is rolled across the room, it could put grooves in the floor and, in some rare cases, collapse due to a weak or cracked leg. (Grand pianos can weigh over one thousand pounds. It's not worth the risk.)

A BETTER WAY...
Call a professional piano mover to move your piano across the room or to the other side of your home. Usually, piano movers will be available in a day or two to come over and get the job done right.

Getting Your Piano Ready BEFORE the Piano Tuner Arrives

Here are a few tips on how to be ready for your piano tuner when they come to work on your instrument:

ALL THAT STUFF
Please clear the music books, candles, photographs, sculptures, toys, misc paraphernalia, live animals, etc. off the top of your piano.

KEEP A LID ON THE NOISE
Let the family know that it should be fairly quiet in the house when the piano tuner starts to go through the tuning procedure. (This is not necessary during repairs of the piano in many cases, just during the tuning session.) The quality of your tuning is determined by several factors. One if them is whether your piano tuner could hear what they were doing while tuning your piano.

So please turn down the:

• X-Box air strikes in the boys room
• Teenage diva screaming matches over clothing
• The fully-loaded, state-of-the-art John Deere lawn mower right out side the window
• The washing machine that makes "that weird noise."
• The dishwasher that whispers right over all harmonics while we are tweaking the high treble on your piano
• The hockey game on the giant screen
• The Dyson
• The toy drones
• You Tube
• And please let your Beagle out soon.

"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!"
Let your piano tuner in the door, please. All tuners have a sixth-sense when it comes to hearing the "stuff" flying off the piano onto a nearby coffee table while we're staring at the "Welcome to Our Home" sign that's right next to the hornets' next at the front door (because you "never really use that door"). Let us in and we will gladly help you remove all the stuff from your piano. We do it everyday.

LOVABLE PETS
After your tuner greets the dogs, cats, chickens, snakes, parrots, guinea pigs or in my experience, wallaby's, bring them into another room and keep them there so the piano technician can move around the piano area without the boa constrictor slithering down the high treble into the toolbox. (Many tuners love animals, but need to get the job done quickly and efficiently so they can move on to the next service call so, "it's nothing personal, it's just business.")

THE "HURRY-IT-UP" FACTOR
Piano tuning sessions vary from about 45 minutes to 3 hours in some cases. On-site repairs can take seconds or hours in some cases. If your piano tech is coming for the first time, leave a little extra time for them to finish the work properly.

Yes, piano tuners can be "eccentric." 

Remember: We are a product of YOUR environment.

Help us be more normal, please.

Thank you.

Spring Cleaning and Your Piano

Ah yes, springtime. Warmer temperatures, longer days, yard work and spring cleaning.

So how does this affect your piano? Opening your windows for an extended period of time to air out the living room may increase the humidity in the room, but as long as you are having your piano tuned every six months, your piano will be fine. Yes, a change in humidity can knock your piano out of tune a little bit, but chances are it's almost time to have your instrument tuned again soon, so it's not a problem.

Renovating the house for a new look, but the piano is in the way? Here's were things can go terribly wrong.

DO NOT move your piano to the garage area. Mice, birds, insects and other critters love to make little nests inside pianos. I have pulled many, many rodent nests out of pianos that were put out in the garage, in the barn or even on the farmer's porch while the home was being renovated. It only takes a few hours for one mouse to make a huge mess or even ruin the inner workings of your piano. This can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to fix or even total your piano for good.

THE BEST SOLUTION is to have professional piano movers or even your piano tuner move your piano into the corner of another room inside the house. If the renovation project is going to create dust all over the place, you can go to your local hardware store and pick up some cheap plastic drop cloths and some duct tape. This will usually cost under $10.

Move the piano to its new location, drape the plastic drop cloth over the instrument and wrap it fairly tightly with duct tape. Next, drape an old bed sheet over the piano and your piano will be protected for the most part.

After the project is completed, unwrap the plastic and move the piano back to its original location.

Flip the lid open and inspect the inside of the instrument with a flashlight. In most cases, the inside of the piano will look just like it did before the project.

In the event that you see a fine coating of dust on the tuning pins and one the hammers, call your piano technician and ask about an internal cleaning and tuning.

Following these simple steps will help to insure that your piano is O.K. and you'll be ready to enjoy practicing in your newly decorated room.