vacuuming

[Dave Nereson]

< Shortening the story, it took me about 4 hours to get the piano clean
enough for me to
tune!  And this was really some sweaty nasty work.  (Thank God for my dust
mask.)  Do most of you charge an hourly rate for something like this based
on your
tuning fees (eg, where a tuning would be 2 hours of this rate)?? >

    The average old piano that hasn't been cleaned in decades usually takes
me 45 min. to 1 1/2 hrs., depending how dirty it is, and that's not
including the action, which I almost always take to the shop to work on.
Fortunately out west here where it's dry, the dust is loose and vacuums up
easily, whereas pianos that come from humid climates sometimes have the dust
stuck to the wood and it has to be scraped or brushed with a stiff brush
while vacuuming.  I can use the air compressor on the action in my shop but
not in the customer's home.  The longest I ever spent cleaning was 3 hours
on a grand that had been in a bar and was literally encrusted and glazed
with gooey, boozey, soft-drink syrupy, cigarette ash and dusty crud, smoke
tar, cigarette butts, swizzle sticks, ad nauseam, all over the plate,
strings, soundboard, the tuning pin area, and some down into the action.
    I figure that even though it's "janitorial work", I still have to know:
not to spray stuff on the tuning pins, not to get liquids on the bass
strings, which cleaning solvents to use or not use, not to accidentally suck
up key punchings, hammershank rest cushions, or damper felts, how to
disassemble & reassemble the piano correctly, keeping track of screws, and
to keep the keys in order,  how to effectively clean the soundboard on a
grand without scratching it or damaging strings, etc. -- things a layman
wouldn't necessarily be aware of.  Plus, I know what other service
procedures can be done while it's apart (seating strings in an upright while
the action's out, polishing keypins while the keys are off, etc.), and which
screws to tighten and which to leave alone (nosebolts, balance rail screws
that change the key height), which an amateur probably wouldn't know.
    It's all "piano work" and after cleaning tens or hundreds of pianos, one
develops an efficient procedure that's way more thorough and effective than
a novice would do, so I feel justified in charging the same rate as more
"skilled, cerebral" procedures like tuning, regulating, and voicing.  I do
take some things into consideration, though -- if it's an easy vacuuming
job --just loose surface dust-- I'll probably charge less than if I have to
deal with a nasty, sweaty, crud-scraping, dead mouse-removing
ordeal.  --Dave Nereson, RPT, Denver