Frequently Asked Questions

This depends on when it was last tuned. A piano should be tuned every 6 months and if this is the case, then a once over tune will suffice which is relatively inexpensive. If the piano hasn’t been tuned for some time, years perhaps, then we may need to go over the tuning a few times to get it back to pitch. Lack of tuning can render the piano untunable and worthless as a musical instrument.

The correct answer to this is every season change, because although there are many factors that affect a piano’s tune, top of the list would be temperature and humidity. If you can afford to have your piano tuned 4 times a year then great! But for the majority we recommend piano tuning every 6 months, this keeps on top of the natural change from summer to winter, and in most cases will suffice.

Temperature and the fluctuation of humidity is the number one cause for your piano going out of tune. It is predominantly made of wood, and as the humidity increases the wood absorbs the moisture causing it to expand, this in turn pulls the strings tighter and raises the pitch. Conversely, as humidity drops and the environment becomes drier the wood shrinks, this loosens the strings and the pitch drops.

We strongly recommend you call us for a quotation first but, if funds are tight and you’re fit and able, we do offer a piano trolley hire service, so take a look at our removal tips.

If you’re moving a piano into another room to have the new carpet fitted, there’s no need to re-tune it. Move it to another home where the climate and humidity invariably are different, we recommend tuning after a 2 week settle period. The moving of a piano, if done professionally, will not affect the tuning It’s the change in its environment.

The average wait of an upright piano is 200kg (450lb). The weight of grand pianos can be somewhere between 200 – 450kg (450 – 1000lb)

Piano recycling.  In 32 plus years, we have recycled a fair amount of pianos! If we can’t restore the piano to its former glory, then we quite often use the bits to keep others going. A bit like organ donation, but of course we deal in pianos!

Sadly we do offer a piano disposal service. They’re not the easiest items to move and normal refuse collection will not take them.  We have been moving pianos for a long time, and you have the assurance that we will not mark your floors, scrape those freshly decorated walls, or crack the upvc door threshold on our way out.

The casing may look exceptional and lovingly preserved, yet if not tuned regularly or kept in the wrong environment, strings may snap, tuning pins may be too loose, the piano may be rendered untunable. For a small fee we will inspect the piano for you, tell you what needs doing and how much it may cost.

On an overstrung piano the strings go across the frame. On a straight strung piano, the strings go from top to bottom. An overstrung piano will give you a much longer string, and therefore a bigger louder sound. However, this is relative to the size of the piano and quality of the strings, it should not influence your decision as to which is best.

In a damp garage? Not good. In the kitchen? Worse still. In front of the radiator or in the conservatory, forget it!

Pianos are predominantly made from wood, and wood reacts to heat and humidity. Take a look at the answer to ‘why does a piano go out of tune?’ Simply put, if you dry it out you’ll render it untuneable. To the other extreme, pianos subject to dampness from a house hold leak perhaps, but not drenched in water, are sometimes retrievable if allowed to adjust slowly back to a normal environment.

Our Storage facility is good for this. If you have no choice but to keep your piano backed onto a radiator, then you’ll need to turn it off! A radiator either side of the piano is generally workable, depending on the area around it and size of the room.

No, piano collection is free at any point on the hire scheme.

Unfortunately it would not be economical to include the cost of regular piano tuning within the rental scheme.  Your piano will be in tune and ready to go once we’ve installed it, it’s first piano tune will be necessary 2 weeks to 2 months after delivery (the settle period for a piano’s new environment) and then at regular 6 monthly intervals thereafter. Please visit our piano tuning page for the current price of this.

You can! Just bring her into the workshop at a later date and any monies credited on the rental scheme will count towards her new piano. The only additional cost would be a further delivery, or in this case change over fee, which is priced the same as your initial delivery charge when you first hired the piano.

We certainly can help you with this collection and delivery, the borough of Redbridge is quite a busy area for us. I’ll need a few more details before I can work out a removal quote, if you’d like to forward your contact number or call our workshop on Romford 343455 we’d be more than happy to assist.

We do move electric pianos as well as electonic organs.  Be sure to write down the make and model number before calling, sometimes we’ll dismantle the instrument for ease and safe transport. Look forward to hearing from you. James

Hello Soffiat, we do move electric pianos and keyboards upstairs and we can assemble it for you. As for the cost, I’d guestimate the removal to your daughters bedroom in Woodford Green to be £45. If you’ve just bought the piano and it needs to be assembled, then an extra £45 should do the job making a total of £85 all in. And yes, we can take away the packaging!
Best regards
Paul

Well there’s a question! If I told you, you wouldn’t need our specialized services? That said, hats of to you if you pull it off without injury to yourself or the piano.  Good Luck Colin!

1. Check you’ve enough room around the piano, you’ll be lowering it on to its flat side.  If it needs to be manoeuvred then make sure you take the weight off each of the legs DO NOT just push it hoping the tiny castors will assist, grand piano wheels are only for decoration.
2. Remove the lid, and remove the hinges left on the piano.
3. Remove the music desk, piano fall (the lid that covers the keys) and the Lyre (the pedal assembly).  Some piano falls particularly soft or slow closing falls will be troublesome to remove, my advice would be to use paper masking tape to insure the lid remains shut during transport.
4. Now the fun part! We need to remove the correct leg.  As you sit at your grand piano the leg closest to your left side is the one we need to remove first.  Make sure the screws (sometimes butterfly bolts) are loosened before you attempt to remove it, you’ll need a second or third pair of hands to assist with the lift.
5. When the leg is removed, you’ll lower the left side of the piano onto the floor ( It’s a moment that still causes me anxiety even after 32+ years of moving pianos).  It’s important that this corner meets a soft landing, if you’re not on carpet then you’ll need some thick blankets that measure the length of the piano.
6. Now at this point, it’s worth adding that if we were moving the grand piano from one house to another, i.e. on to the van, then we’d use a proper grand piano shoe, sometimes called a grand skid. This is our small one used for baby grand removals, larger pianos need a larger shoe! Bit like feet really..?
7. To be continued….