Piano in a Basement

[MzrtMusic]

Hello all...

My parents are thinking about having a new house built for us to move into. They are planning a full basement, which would be given to me for my bedroom, and a full studio. (I teach almost full time... As school allows) When they asked me what I thought about it, I was grateful for the space, but I had some serious doubts about putting my grand piano in a basement. It's an 8 year old 6'1" Young Chang G-185. My mother says that it would be OK because it's a brand new house, built using some sort of moisture protection, and because it would be a walk-out basement. So we wouldn't have all of the mildew problems. New construction aside, I still have some qualms about putting it down there. I live in the Ohio Valley, and there is some pretty serious humidity in the summer, some pretty serious dryness in the winter, and lots and lots of rain in the spring. Any thoughts or experiences out there?

Thanks!

Sarah

[Axtremus]

A few options I can think of.

1. Put humidifier and dehumidifier in the basement, turn one or the other on as necessary. Some of these have built in hygrometer sensor and controller circuits to turn themselves on/off if you set them to trigger at certain relative humidity levels.

2. Install Dampp-Chaser system for your piano ( https://www.dampp-chaser.com/ ). It's basically humidifier+dehumidifier+hygrometer+controller designed as one package specifically for the piano.

Even if you put the piano elsewhere, humidity control is always a good idea anyway. Until the house is actually built and you put a hygrometer in the basement and measure the relative humidity swing year round, you really cannot tell just how big the swing will be.