Piano Transportation, does the weather affect the move?

Piano Transportation, have you thought about the weather before piano transport? In short here are some of the ways weather can affect a piano.

According to some of the latest reports, an estimated 2 to 5 million pianos are currently owned across the United Kingdom. Playing and caring for pianos involves a great deal of work, but a number of people fail to consider certain factors outside of everyday use and exercise caution with these instruments during the piano move process. In truth, even the weather and indoor air quality can affect a piano in several ways.

Piano removalists explain how pianos work

As you’re probably well aware, pianos are complex instruments. Piano Movers UK explains that any piano removal company must have an understanding of how a piano work before attempting to move these great instruments. They consist of wooden frames, wires, hammers, dampers and keys all connected via a soundboard. When you press a key or combination of them, they raise corresponding hammers. Those hammers then strike the strings to which they’re attached.

At the same time, this lifts the dampers, which are designed to prevent sound from occurring when the keys aren’t being played. Lifting the damper gives the strings the freedom to move and resonate. Once the key is released, everything returns to the stationary position.

On top of all this, the keys have different numbers of strings, dampers, and other components attached to them. Each key can have 50 components or more for a grand total of more than 7,000 moving parts per piano. Strings are tightly wound to create just the right sounds for their unique positions on the keyboard.

Piano transportation, let’s look at the second factor to keep in mind when moving a piano:

Understanding how the climate affects your piano

While pianos are designed to withstand routine playing, they’re actually quite delicate in nature. Each tightly wound string and its corresponding parts can be vulnerable to certain conditions, such as heat, cold, and humidity.

In many ways, pianos are a bit like human muscles, tendons, and joints. If you’ve ever heard someone complain about their joints hurting when cold or rainy weather comes into play or experienced this phenomenon for yourself, you may already understand this to an extent. Your Piano Moving Service should keep the difference between cold, hot, and humid weather in mind.

Man and Van Piano London advise between Cold, Hot, or Humid.

Cold weather is known to cause piano strings to contract. This means they grow slightly shorter. Since they’re wound so tightly, this can place an incredible amount of excess pressure on the strings and keys. At the same time, cool temperatures make the wood in pianos and their soundboards warp and contract.

On the other hand, warmer temperatures can have the opposite impact. Heat causes piano strings to grow slightly, much like running hot water over the metal rings on jars loosens them. Warmer weather also prompts the wood in pianos to grow and become somewhat distorted.

Humidity likewise affects pianos. High levels of moisture in the air cause the soundboard to swell. Low humidity levels cause it to shrink. These effects can raise or lower the pitch of the keys and strings respectively. When extremely high humidity levels are present, rust may also become an issue.

People can’t necessarily see these effects because they’re extremely minimal from a visual point of view. Those who are familiar with the distinct sounds of their own pianos can certainly hear the impact, though. Even when temperatures and humidity levels return to normal or moderate levels, the pitch and tone of the piano may not return to their original status. Professional Piano Movers know these effects and are knowledgeable about how to combat these throughout the move.

How Piano Movers combat the effects of weather on a piano

Obviously, no one has the power to control the weather. That being said, you can minimise its effect on your piano. Standard home heating and air conditioning can make a considerable difference in this regard. By keeping your home’s thermostat at a perpetual temperature, such as the recommended average of 22 degrees celsius, it’s possible to lower the effect of outdoor temperatures on your piano. Before the move ask a moving company piano how to prepare for the move.

Humidity is another matter entirely. Heat tends to raise indoor humidity levels whereas heating systems have a way of drying out the air inside the home. For cases where negatively affected humidity levels are an issue, whole-house humidifiers can help.

Whole-house humidifiers go a long way toward regulating the amount of moisture in the home throughout the year. During the warmer months when humidity levels are high, these systems remove some of the moisture from the air being circulated. When colder weather takes hold, they add moisture to the air when needed.

What if my piano is in storage?

If your piano is in storage rather than in your home, this is a completely different situation. Keeping the piano in a standard storage unit can have a significant negative impact on the instrument. Instead, it should be kept in a sealed, climate-controlled unit where changing temperatures and humidity levels have little chance of affecting it. Your piano removal service will advise on the correct storage facilities to choose from, simply just ask.

Certain other steps can also be taken to protect your piano throughout the year. Experts in the industry point out that placing pianos away from direct sunlight can prevent heat and UV rays from impacting their pitch and longevity. Being sure to keep them out of the direct line of fire of heating and air conditioning vents is also a good idea. If you don’t have a whole-house humidifier, standard tabletop models can help during colder seasons as well.

All things considered before piano delivery

Few people realise just how deeply weather can affect a piano. Changes in temperature and humidity levels can have a considerable impact on not only the way a piano sounds but its overall condition as well. If your joints tend to tighten during certain times of the year, chances are your piano is being affected in much the same way.

Conventional heating and air conditioning systems can help protect such delicate instruments, but they’re not always enough. Additional whole-house humidifiers may also be needed to safeguard the piano against high or low moisture levels. If you’re placing a piano in storage, be sure the unit is climate controlled and protected from humidity.

On top of all this, pianos should be tuned on a regular basis to help keep them in optimum shape. No matter which measures you have in play to protect your piano, it should be tuned at least once a year. This will help ensure it sounds like it should and that its strings, hammers, soundboards, and other components are in the best possible condition. Van-247delivery piano removal services advise that your piano should “rest” in its new spot for a couple of weeks before you get the tuner in.

Piano moving cost UK, what to expect?

How much are piano movers? For more information on piano transportation, contact a piano moving company like Van-247 we have expert piano transporters all over the UK. We are only a phone call away. We can safely move your piano wherever you go! Van-247 is one of the best piano logistics specialists, much more details about our job you can find in the article: Transporting a Piano in musical steps.

For transporting a piano cost contact us for a quotation at +44 (0) 2045523383 or fill out a form at https://van-247delivery.com/piano-transport/  One of our agents will call you within 5 minutes.

Van-247delivery we offer professional piano shipping services, delivered with pride. Van-247 delivers not only piano transportation but also excellent house-, office removals, and pallet transport and may be reached via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.