OT: My tale of woe! A piano near-horror story.

[cedar]

A tale of woe.

 

Over the past 5 years, my music room has suffered a couple of floods.  Each time, the water never got more than an inch high - perhaps because the carpet soaked things up.  I thought the water only reached the wheels of my beloved Mason and Hamlin grand piano, sparing any real damage.  (Other items all could be moved out of the room).

 

After extensive repairs inside and outside the house over past six months, this week I thought I was finally ready to re-open my room for sessions.  Final step was laying down the rug and moving furniture back.  While I was out of my house, the large run was laid down, and the workers were cajoled into rolling the piano into place. 

 

I get home, decide to inch the piano into the exact ideal spot - moving it forward ever so slightly. 

 

Within seconds, the front leg suddenly gives, leaving me with this result:

 

 

Suddenly, my long-awaited dream of re-opening the room is replaced by the horror and wondering how long before I get to play again. I cannot tell you fast I spiraled into depression.

 

Luckily, I find piano-repair people who were willing to come over the next morning.  Today, they came by, removed the leg and all the wheels.  Supposedly, repairs will be complete in a matter of days.  So I can breathe again,

 

In retrospect, it’s possible that the moisture in the room - though never rising more than an inch - was impacting the wood.  The wheels are being replaced because there was rust.  But I was also told I never should have moved the piano myself - at least not forward - because it put too much stress on the front leg.

 

Anyway, just wanted to share this saga.  Maybe there’s a moral here somewhere.

[Al Quinn]

That’s a frightening tale. I remember that beautiful piano well.
 

For what it’s worth, I learned somewhere along the line that the wheels on my C3 are not adequate for rolling the piano around. I was told they put too much force on the legs. So, I replaced the wheels with small dolly’s and never had a problem. This pic shows the small dolly’s. 

 

[jazzpiano88]

Glad to hear they can make the repair and avoid a disaster.  That reminds me of wanting to move my piano about 24 inches to make room for a keyboard in L fashion.  

I asked my piano tech and was advised to only do it if most weight could be lifted off the legs, else they would likely break.   At nearly a thousand pounds that wasn’t going to happen even with friends.   It sits on an oriental rug so I have toyed with gathering some friends and see if the rug will slide.  I kind of doubt it.