Moving a Piano Into Storage

If you need to move a piano and then store it for a while, the simplest and safest option is to have one piano specialist handle both. A piano is happiest kept somewhere stable, and moving it into storage well means thinking about the conditions it will sit in, not just getting it off your hands. Done properly, a piano can wait months in storage and come out ready to settle and be tuned. Done carelessly, storage is where pianos quietly deteriorate.

Why storage conditions matter for a piano

A piano is mostly timber, felt and steel, and it does not like extremes. A cold, damp shed or an unheated lock-up with swinging temperature and humidity is bad for a piano: damp swells the timber and rusts the strings, dry heat cracks the soundboard, and big swings knock the tuning about and can loosen joints over time. What a piano wants is somewhere stable and dry, out of direct damp and away from radiators and outside walls. That is why storing a piano is not the same as storing garden furniture, and why climate-considered storage is worth it for anything you care about.

Combining the move and the storage

The neat way to do it is to book the move and the storage together. The same crew that collects the piano wraps it in fitted transit covers, moves it once, and places it into storage still protected, rather than handling it twice through two separate firms. When you are ready for it back, the same specialist delivers it to its new home on the scheduled route. One point of contact, one crew, one continuous chain of care from your old home to storage to the new one.

How long can a piano sit in storage?

In the right conditions, a piano can be stored for months without harm. It will need a few weeks to settle and then a tune once it is in its final home, as any moved piano does, but stable storage does not damage it. The key is the conditions, not the length of time. A piano stored somewhere cold and damp for a winter will come out the worse for it; a piano stored somewhere stable will come out fine.

Booking a move into storage

PianoSpeed moves pianos and stores them, so you can arrange both in one go. To book the move, put your details into the PianoSpeed booking tool, and for climate-considered piano storage by the month or long term, see piano storage. Check the day we are in your area so the collection lines up with the schedule. One specialist collects, stores and delivers, with the piano protected the whole way.