You've Inherited a Piano. Now What?

A piano is one of the few things people inherit that they can't put in a drawer and decide about later. It's in a house that's being cleared, it weighs several hundred pounds, and there's usually a deadline.

We get these calls constantly, and the person on the phone almost always opens with some version of "I don't even know what I'm supposed to ask." So here's the order we'd think it through.

First, don't let anyone move it in a hurry

The most expensive mistakes happen in the first week, when a house needs to be emptied and a piano gets moved by whoever is available.

A piano moved badly can arrive with a cracked bridge, a shifted soundboard, or a snapped caster and a gouged floor. That's damage done before anyone has decided whether the instrument was worth keeping — and it removes options.

If there's time pressure, moving it into storage properly is almost always better than moving it twice or moving it fast.

Find out what it actually is

Two pieces of information change every decision that follows.

The maker and the serial number. The name is on the fallboard, above the keys. The serial number is usually stamped inside — on the plate near the tuning pins on an upright, or on the plate under the lid on a grand. Photograph both.

What kind of piano it is. A spinet or console is a small upright. A studio upright is taller. A grand is the horizontal one, and the length matters. These are not interchangeable categories in terms of value or handling.

Send us those photos and we'll tell you what you're looking at.

Be ready for the honest answer about value

This is where we'd rather be straight with you than encouraging.

Most old upright pianos have very little resale value. Not because they're bad instruments, but because supply massively exceeds demand — a great many were built, families are downsizing, and digital pianos took the beginner market. Plenty of perfectly playable uprights are given away.

That doesn't mean yours is worthless. Quality makers hold value, grands are a different market entirely, and condition matters enormously. But if you're hoping the piano funds something, find out before you plan on it.

The thing people underweight: the piano's value to you is a separate question from its market value, and it's usually the one that actually decides this. A piano your grandmother played is not a line item.

The five real options

Keep it and play it. Get it tuned first — any piano that's been moved or sat unplayed needs it, sometimes more than once as it settles. If it hasn't been touched in years, have it looked at before assuming it's fine.

Keep it and restore it. Sticking keys, an unresponsive pedal, broken casters, a cracked or painted-over cabinet, a finish that's gone dull — all fixable. This is what we do, and the photo above is an upright that came back this way.

Store it. For a remodel, a move, or because the decision isn't ready to be made. Just not in a standard storage unit — more on that below.

Sell it. Realistic pricing matters more than listing it in more places. Know what it is first.

Let it go. Sometimes a piano isn't playable, isn't valuable, and isn't wanted, and the honest answer is donation or disposal. We'd tell you that rather than sell you a restoration that doesn't make sense.

If you're storing it, not the self-storage unit

A standard storage unit is a bad environment for a piano, and it's the default choice almost everyone makes.

Pianos are wood under tens of thousands of pounds of string tension. Temperature swings and humidity changes move that wood — which pulls the instrument out of tune, and over longer periods can loosen joints, lift veneer, or crack the soundboard. Central Valley summers are exactly the conditions that do it.

Ours are wrapped, padded, kept up off the floor and tagged. And when you're ready we move it back out, which is the part people forget to arrange.

What we can do in one conversation

We move pianos, store them, repair them, refinish them and rebuild them — so you don't need a separate company for each option while you're still deciding between them.

Send us photos of the piano, the fallboard name and the serial number, and tell us the situation. We'll tell you what it is, what it likely needs, and what we'd honestly do in your position.

Serving Modesto, Ceres, Turlock, Riverbank, Oakdale, Stockton and the surrounding Central Valley since 1991. Free estimates.

Nixon's Oak Tree House · 301 Maze Blvd, Modesto · (209) 524-6349