A top piano storage facility in New Jersey
Proper piano storage is important to the well-being and life of your piano. To ensure a long life, your instrument must be stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment.
A safe, long term humidity level is between 38% and 52%, relative humidity. A safe long term temperature range is between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. These are the ranges we maintain in our facility. We store only pianos and organs.
Since we restore and sell classic pianos, we also store our own pianos here.
You are welcome to visit us for a tour anytime.
We are fully insured. We are also registered with the State of NJ, Board of Public Movers and Warehousemen, Licence #000600. Our facility is inspected and we must show proof of insurance yearly in order to renew our licence. The NJ Board of Public Movers and Warehousemen is a State Agency within the Division of Public Safety.
We always do a full written inspection of your piano, with you present, before we bring it into storage. We do the same inspection, with you, upon return.
Piano Storage Rates
Our storage rate is $75 per month.
Our move in rates vary slightly, but an average baby grand costs about $445 each way for pickup and delivery. Vertical pianos are about $295 each way.
Payment Policy
Initial payment is required at the time of pickup. You are then billed, preferably by email, every 3 months for continued storage. Piano return payment is due once the piano is in your home and you are fully satisified.
Rates are based on average size pianos on ground level or 1st floors with up to 5 steps. These rates apply in northern and central NJ, eastern PA, and Rockland and Westchester Counties in NY. We also have very reasonable rates outside of these areas.
It seems like there are more pianos in storage today than we’ve seen in our last 35 years in business. Maybe it’s partly due to the economy shrinking years ago. It could be that people are much more mobile today than they’ve ever been, so when they move they can’t take all of their stuff with them right away.
Because such a large portion of our business is dedicated to piano storage, we detailed some information that is important to anyone that is considering storing a piano for any amount of time.
Piano Storage Temperature and Humidity
Pianos hate change, especially a change in humidity levels. If you’ve ever seen your wood floor swell and buckle in the summer or crack wide open in the winter, you know what I’m talking about. The swelling is more likely to happen in homes where folks don’t air condition in the summer. The wood absorbs moisture from the air and expands. As two pieces of wood expand into each other they have nowhere to go but up, so they buckle.
Believe it or not, a soundboard is kind of like a wood floor. It’s made up of long pieces of spruce that are butted up against each other and glued. When these pieces of spruce absorb water they begin to swell and press up against each other and they begin to buckle. These buckled areas are called pressure ridges.
Dryness creates the opposite problem. As moisture leaves the wood, it shrinks. So those butt joints begin to open up. It looks like the soundboard has cracked, but in reality the joints have separated. As the soundboard continues to shrink, cracks will also form along the grain lines of the wood.
A piano that’s kept warm and dry in the winter and warm and moist in the summer, gets the most stress.
Here is a soundboard that has been through many years of extreme humidity and dryness. The arrows point to the cracks and separations that formed due to expansion and contraction.
The Perfect Piano Storage Conditions
Very few people have perfect conditions, but it’s generally agreed upon that 44% relative humidity is the perfect humidity for pianos.
A reasonable humidity range is between 40 and 60%. Keep in mind, a minimal amount of fluctuation in the humidity level is what you want to strive for. Compare the wood in your piano to an elastic band. Each time you stretch it and let it contract, it becomes less resilient.
I’ve seen pianos that have been around for 50 years, where the humidity levels fluctuate between 25 and 100%. These pianos are still functional, but they have major issues.
If you want to protect your investment and keep your piano performing at a high-level for many years, you need to keep the humidity levels in the 40 to 50% range.
Keep Your Piano Healthy When Not In Storage
The first thing I recommend to people is to get a hygrometer. They can be purchased at home improvement centers or garden supply stores. They are in the $50 range and they measure humidity. Most hygrometers today are digital, have a thermometer and a memory. So you can keep track of temperature and humidity over a long period of time.
If the humidity levels fluctuate widely, out of the 40-50% range, you can control the humidity in the house with a humidifier or air conditioner. If you have an HVAC, forced hot air system, there are a number of manufactures of aftermarket humidity systems that can be installed by an HVAC professional.
You can also purchase a humidity control system for the piano. The industry leader in this technology is Damp-Chaser Corporation.
Pardon the information overload. Humidity control is so important to the long term health of pianos, we wanted to stress its importance.
Schedule Your Piano Storage Pickup
Please call us at 908-482-1628 or fill out the form below to schedule your piano pick up.