Piano storage
Whether the summer has emptied the building or a refurbishment is taking over the recital hall, we collect your instruments, hold them in climate-controlled storage and return them when the rooms are ready.
Book storageWHERE MUSIC IS THE WHOLE POINT
A specialist music school or conservatoire is not like a general school with a piano in the assembly hall. A department might run a dozen teaching studios, a large practice room block, a recital hall and a concert space, each with instruments that the pianists working there know well and depend on. The pianos are not incidental to the building. They are the building's reason for existing.
That is why the standard approach to a summer closure or a building project, which is to leave things where they are and hope the conditions hold, does not work here. An empty conservatoire building in summer is one of the worst environments for fine instruments. Climate control is usually reduced or switched off, and months of unmanaged temperature and humidity do real damage to a soundboard, tuning pins and action. We collect institutional instruments before the gap, store them in clean, stable conditions, and return them on a schedule that fits the academic calendar.
THE INSTRUMENTS THEMSELVES
Music schools carry a wide range of instruments, and each category needs handling differently. A recital hall concert grand is a major asset and a significant logistics operation. A practice room block of studio uprights is a different kind of challenge: many instruments spread across a building, each needing to be collected efficiently without disrupting the department's last days before closure. A teaching studio piano belonging to an individual professor is different again.
Every instrument we hold is fully insured from the moment of collection through to re-delivery. Each one is logged against your booking individually, which matters when a head of department, a bursar or an insurer needs to account for where a specific instrument is and under what conditions it is being held.
HOW IT WORKS
Institutional collections are planned in advance. You tell us what pianos need to go, where they are in the building, and any access details we need to know. A recital hall grand may require a hoist or crane lift. Older buildings often have narrow staircases and no service lift between floors. These things are priced clearly at booking so there are no surprises for the finance office on the day.
Our specialist piano crews arrive in a confirmed 3-hour window, wrap each instrument before it leaves its room, and take it to our storage facility. We can supply written confirmation of the instruments in our care, the conditions they are being held in, and the insurance details, for your own records and for any external insurers or asset registers that need to be satisfied.
TERMS THAT FIT
Music schools live by the academic year and by the unpredictable reality of building work. A refurbishment that was supposed to finish before the autumn term may run into October. A summer closure might extend if a programme changes. Storage that locks you into a contract you have to renegotiate when a project overruns creates unnecessary pressure at exactly the wrong time.
There is no fixed term on any booking. You pay for the weeks the instruments are actually in storage, billed in four-weekly cycles, and if the timeline extends the billing continues at the same rate without any renegotiation needed. When the rooms are genuinely ready, one message books the return. Because PianoStorage is part of the Pianospeed Group, the collection, the storage and the re-delivery are handled by one organisation with one record of every instrument throughout.
Simple, transparent pricing
Prices include collection, climate-controlled storage and full insurance. Stairs without a lift and off-day collections are priced transparently in the booking. Re-delivery is quoted when you are ready for the piano back.
Questions
Yes. Institutional collections often span teaching studios, practice rooms and a recital hall, and we plan the operation before the day so the crew knows what they are collecting and where from. Each instrument is logged individually at collection. If the whole piano department needs to go out before a refurbishment, we treat it as one booking, planned as a single operation.
Yes. We work to your dates rather than a fixed schedule. Each postcode area has one set collection day each week, so once you give us the timeline we plan collection before the building closes and return for when you reopen. We confirm a 3-hour target window the day before at both ends, so the staff member giving access does not need to hold the whole day.
They can, though it is worth checking with the lender before arranging storage, since some loan agreements specify storage conditions or require the lender's consent to moving the instrument. Once you have confirmed that off-site storage is permitted under the agreement, the instruments are held in the same climate-controlled conditions and with the same insurance as any others in our facility. Please let us know at booking that the instruments are on loan.
Every instrument is logged against your booking individually from the day it arrives. They are held in a facility that is monitored around the clock, and each one is fully insured throughout. We can provide written confirmation of what is in our care, when it arrived, the conditions it is stored in, and the insurance in place. That documentation suits asset registers, bursars, department heads and institutional insurers.
Yes. Access challenges including crane lifts, hoist access, narrow staircases and tight landings are all part of what our specialist crews deal with for institutional clients. They are priced clearly during the booking process so you see the complete cost before you confirm, and there are no additions on collection day.
Yes. Re-delivery goes to the address and room you specify when you book the return. If a piano is moving from its original studio to a different practice room as part of a departmental reorganisation, or to a new building on the same site, tell us the new location when you book the return and we confirm access details and re-delivery arrangements from there.
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