[CAUT] Query about "Cold Storage"

[John Ross]

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No relation, but when you Google, John Ross, he beats me. LOL
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jeff Olson 
  To: College and University Technicians 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 8:26 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Query about "Cold Storage"


  Thanks, guys (and gal!) for the input.  On second thought, I think I may move to San Diego... :-)  (Especially after reading your account, Otto, which was frightening on many different levels :)

  So the winters have been mild, Tim?  My aunt, who lives in Brookings, says the same thing.  I'll be residing in a small town rather north of that, so I hope that holds (she's lately referred to a rumor about an impending "harsh winter" that sounds almost like an anticipated ice age or something:).

  This business of heating up the garage from very cold and then spraying, and then, presumably, letting the garage cool down some time thereafter is somewhat worrisome to me.  I don't doubt it could work, but it seems that if you didn't keep the place warm enough for some period -- a day or two? -- you'd be putting your finish at risk.  Also, unless the garage or shop is really insulated, even to keep at it near-70% for a day or two would be costly, wouldn't it (that would include keeping it warm all night)?  I had thought, as John Ross suggested, to damp-chase any piano I had in my garage; the suggestion about moisture rising from the cement floor struck me as a good caution (incidentally, John, any relationship to the famous Cherokee Indian John Ross?)

  Damn, I may just take up ice fishing or something in the dead of winter instead of piano work...

  :-(  JeffO
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Tim Coates 
    To: College and University Technicians 
    Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 2:05 PM
    Subject: Re: [CAUT] Query about "Cold Storage"


    Jeff,

    Having lived in SD for 41 years and been a piano technician here for 34 years I need to clarify a few things. We don't get sub zero temps very often any more. The wind chill can get it down there, but the past 10 years have been pretty mild. I really like a good blizzard because it is a gift: absolutely helpless to do nothing but stay home or work in the shop. It is a rather pressure releasing situation. People who try to beat a storm are considered foolish. The winters have been almost too mild because we need the moisture from the snow to help the agricultural industry. Agriculture is still our number one industry. Credit cards and health services are catching up, though.

    There is more humidity in cold air than if you take the same air and heat it. Use a good humidity gauge and do a test to see the differential. I don't recommend to customers to store a piano in an unheated area for more than a year. The important aspect is not to warm the piano too fast. Condensation will develop. My home piano spent 5 years in an unheated garage before I did anything with it. It is solid as a rock even though it isn't a top of the line constructed piano. I know technicians around here who have refinished in their garages during the winter, they just did the proper warming before and after spraying. 

    Hope this helps.

    Tim Coates
    University of South Dakota
    University of Sioux Falls

    On Sep 26, 2005, at 9:18 PM, Jeff Olson wrote:


      Many of you probably hail from "hardier" climates than I, and since I'm about to move to a hardier (euphemism) climate -- South Dakota -- I've been wondering about the effects of  sub-zero temperatures on pianos.  Do any of you who reside in cold climes store your pianos in a shop/garage over the winter.  If so, any negative consequences?
       
      I'm fairly sure that wood finishing would be out of the question during those cold months without adequate heating....
       
      JeffO

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