Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Can I get rid of caster cups or not?

Well, my piano is settling in nicely to its new home!

Right now I just have one concern: it's up too high! I have it on caster cups, the idea being to protect the floor. But I would really like to take it off the cups. However, I'm worried about the floor. Under the piano is an area rug (not very thick) and a good quality carpet pad (100% recycled felt, 1/4 inch thick). The floor itself is original hardwood (original to the house, which is about 60 y/o), it was obviously refinished before we bought the house and is absolutely beautiful. So I would hate for the piano to dent or otherwise damage the floor.

BTW I currently have a cushion on the bench and ordered an adjustable bench (arriving tomorrow hopefully) but I still would prefer to have the piano off the cups. That would lower the pedals as well.

So, do you think the carpet pad and area rug are enough, or is there enough possibility of damaging the floor that I should leave the caster cups in place?

Gee, just not sure. I’ve always had my pianos on caster cups. In my mind it protects the piano casters as well as the floor. Mine came with a padded bench and then I added a thick matching never used on a horse folded wool saddle blanket. I adjust the music stand, wear my piano readers and I’m all set. I believe, not sure but will be instantly corrected if wrong, your tech might be able to adjust pedal height to some degree. The last two homes, the piano sits on travertine tile, which has a rather irregular surface unlike ceramic or porcelain tile. Travertine is a much more fragile tile, which is why I never thought about removing the caster cups. You might try playing around with the adjustable bench when it arrives before removing them.

Because it’s on a rug I’d lose the caster cups, since that will instantly solve your pedal height issue.

j&j why would the casters need protecting? They look awfully strong??

TD, any thoughts about the likelihood of denting the hardwood floor through the carpet and pad?

Have you thought of adding a small but nice looking rather thick mat to just where the pedals are so your feet are nearer the keys..

Lady Bird -- already did! I still want to lower the piano, if possible.

Do casters come in a standard thickness/height?

How much "height" is being added to your piano with these particular casters?

Do your casters have a felt of cloth backing that would make them suitable for use on a hardwood floor?

Personally, I'd wait until I received the adjustable bench to see if that might solve the problem.

These casters probably add 1/2 to 2/3 an inch in height? Maybe, I need to check.



My piano is on an area rug that is on a carpet pad, so neither the casters nor the caster cups would sit directly on the hardwood floor.

Hmmm. I guess because I think brilliant brass casters look better than scratched ones. And maybe this is as close as I’m ever gonna get to my dream Bösendorfer, so I want the casters to stay pretty. Pretty silly but there you are. 😊

Hi, ShiroKuro,

As terminaldegree said, there may be enough padding under your piano castors to not ding or mar the hardwood floor underneath the two rugs. On the other hand, there is no way of knowing for sure, at least over a period of time. But if the carpet pad and area rug are robust enough to protect the wood floor, you are good to go.

As an added safety precaution, you might look for something much thinner than the cups, but still sturdy enough add additional protection under the castors.

Good luck!

Rick

Yes, I've seen the photos (beautiful piano, by the way). One (extreme) option might be to keep the casters, but remove the large area rug and pad entirely and use a smaller area rug under the piano bench and pedals only. However, I doubt you'd want to go that route.

All I have left of my old grand piano are the caster cups ,a spare key ,and photographs. (somewhere)

"feet nearer key ?" So sorry I meant feet nearer the pedals !

Just replace casters with something skinnier. If you are worried about the floor, go to a hardware store and buy some diamond plating or other steel plating.

Just make sure the plating is smooth.

That possible solution occurred to me as well. But how would you ensure that the piano wouldn't slide around on those hard flat surfaces?

I thought the same as Carey at first too, but then it occurred to me that when casters are on the floor directly, the piano doesn't generally move around, right? And I don't play that forcefully....

Anyway, there are these round (plastic?) plate thingies that I've seen that are flat, that you can put on the wall to prevent the door knob from denting the wall, maybe something like that might work.

I believe we will be making a trip to Lowes....

WIth the steel plates on directly on the floor and the carpet on top of the plates. The piano shouldn't move. Just have something covered on the bottom of the steel plates so that the plates don't damage the floor.

Unless the floors are something less than hard...like heart pine, for example, a piano sitting directly on the casters is unlikely to damage the floor. Rolling around will certainly leave marks, and the weight of the piano will eventually damage the rug that its sitting on, but not the floor.

There are some exceptions. A few makers like Steinway have used tiny brass casters on even larger models that might leave a mark. Additionally, tile floors have added risk of cracking.

Does the piano feel too high for pedaling or for playing the keyboard?

There's sort of an acceptable range every individual has for arm position while playing, and the adjustable bench should accommodate that. (Arm position varies, anyway, with the way the player leans and squirms. 😁)

You might get used to higher pedals, or then again, not. I wouldn't needlessly suffer, but it might be better to give yourself time to get used to all the changes a new piano and bench bring before fiddling with the rug and caster cups.

Without caster cups, the piano weight is concentrated on a very small surface area.

I don't think a fluffy rug and soft pad help distribute the weight very much. I would not rely on plastics designed for other purposes to protect the wood floor and finish.

Also, many residential coatings have become less robust for environmental reasons.