[CAUT] Dusty times ahead?

[Paul Milesi, RPT]

We went through some renovations in February & March of this year.  Practice
room concrete walls above the drop ceilings were all ³leveled² for frame-up
with 2x4s for application of soundproofing.  Lots of concrete dust and chips
of block.  I did my best to insist on removing uprights from rooms as work
was done, and covering grands with plastic drop cloths.  Bottom line, it was
a mess, and I¹m still finding residual, but no real damage I can see.  Of
course, none of our pianos in practice rooms had cases or bass strings that
I had to worry inordinately about.  The concrete dust did not seem to be as
insidious as plaster/sheet rock dust, which seems finer to me.  Our recital
hall stage was also refinished, and pianos had to remain in the room.  We
taped the plastic closed underneath and tightly around legs as best as
possible, but some of the sanding dust still went inside the pianos.

Containment is a good idea.  It¹s probably best if you can be onsite to
³supervise² and recommend the best possible protection for the pianos, since
workmen are usually under time constraints and need to work as quickly as
possible, and their sensibilities regarding the beauty and delicacy of
pianos is of necessity less acute than ours.
-- 
Paul Milesi, RPT
Staff Piano Technician
Howard University Department of Music
Washington, DC



From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
Reply-To: <caut at ptg.org>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 08:40:32 -0500
To: CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org>
Subject: [CAUT] Dusty times ahead?

Hi CAUT's! 

Recently, our elevator bit the dust. Now we're going to be biting quite a
bit of dust as they begin today to jack-hammer out all the elevator stuff,
mechanics, and all and install all new stuff.

I'm concerned about concrete dust and piano finishes and bass strings
(Mostly).  Does anyone know about this potential reaction between bass
strings or finishes with this kind of dust? Has any of your music school
buildings suffered this fate?  Should I be running as fast as possible to
Lowe's to get plastic paint drop cloth for 110 instruments!?

Ear plugs at the ready....This will take about 6-8 weeks to complete, but
probably only about 2 weeks of demolition I imagine.

Best, 

Paul 


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