The Piano Garage

[Avery Todd]

Sy,

   When we moved into our new music building, I had the contractor people
install a 2x10 on the walls, padded with thick carpet, at the level of the
piano case, under where the lid would hit. I didn't want the lid to be
banged into it, padding or not. Also having a quilted cover on it, this
effectively prevents 99% of case damage from moving. Also, the only people
who move it in and out of the "garage" are me or the house manager/crew.
So far, this has worked extremely well.
   Now if I could just figure out how to prevent lid edge damage in our
small, older recital hall. A true case of, as someone on the list once
said, "backstage demolition derby". :-) There, we have almost NO control
of when/how they're moved or who moves them. Even whether the quilted
cover is on or not! :-(

Avery

>Many schools and institutions build a garage to store and lock up their
>grand piano. It is usually a wooden cubicle with some kind of door locked
>with a padlock. The idea is to prevent unauthorized persons from using the
>piano and to prevent vandalism.
>
>That's all well and good but in many cases the piano is still damaged when
>shoving the piano in the garage. Custodians, students and whoever repeatedly
>carelessly ram the piano in hitting it on all sides. The obvious answer
>would be heavy padding on all sides of the shed. A heavy quilted pad over
>the piano would help but only if the piano was moved carefully. The casters
>always want to go south when you want them to go north.
>
>I worked in a school this week where the ebony piano suffered incredible
>damage in this situation.
>
>Maybe when I retire I'll design and build for sale the mother of all piano
>sheds.
>
>Sy Zabrocki


mailto:atodd@uh.edu

Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4201