I have several videos based on the subject of where to put your piano. But now I’m going to address specifically putting a piano in a basement. The issue is about the extremes of temperature and humidity the piano may be subjected to. This is a concern with pianos going anywhere. Pianos thrive in a stable environment of around 45-50% humidity. Minimal changes of temperature or humidity are ideal. It’s best to treat the room. Basements provide special challenges. The good news is that basements can be somewhat stable in terms of temperature because of the geothermal effect.
However, many basements can be extremely moist, and if you have any issues whatsoever with basements ever becoming wet, I would not put a piano down there under any circumstances. If it’s impossible to treat the room with dehumidifiers and possibly even humidifiers, the next best thing is a Damp-Chaser system which sits under the piano or behind the piano on uprights. They provide stability by either heating up rods to take out humidity or even adding humidity from a water tank. This is a possible solution if treating the room is not practical.
To recap, the ideal environment is to put the piano in a room that is stable in regards to temperature and humidity. If you’re in a room that is not particularly stable, try to treat the room. And lastly, if you can’t do either of those, at least get a Damp-Chaser System. Once again, I hope this has been helpful and thank you for joining us! Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com
3 thoughts on “Can You Put a Piano in a Basement?”
Greetings Robert, I’m a 15 year old piano student and composer, It’s always been my dream to compose a piano concerto, you recently made a video explaining what a sonata is, could you please make a video explaining what a concerto is? That would be enormously appreciated, Thank you for your time, and thank you for your videos, they are very insightful and very interesting.
Hello, Robert. I was happy to come across your website with the post about putting pianos in a basement. I have 5’2″ grand that I love to play, but I am thinking of moving myself (and the piano, of course) to live in my basement so I can rent out the upstairs of my house. The piano would most likely be “living” in a corner of the basement that is not below grade. Do you think the “Damp-Chaser” would be sufficient or should I simply avoid putting the piano in the basement altogether? Thank you for any thoughts you have.
If the basement is humid, a dehumidifier would be best for the piano (as well as your basement to avoid the growth of mold). You can get a humidity gauge like one of these to determine if treatment is necessary: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=humidity+gauge&crid=3Q567NWDQW9TU&sprefix=humidity+gauge%2Caps%2C116&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 Ideal humidity for pianos (and people) is in the 45-50% range. I wouldn’t recommend trying to move the piano yourself. Here is information on how baby grands are moved. https://livingpianos.com/how-to-move-a-piano-tips-for-moving-a-piano/