Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Acoustics of big room but with low ceiling?

I did a search on SK5 Delivered. 100 Results. Not one matched that thread title?

How did this get off on a discussion of architecture, track, and spec. homes?

sorry, should have just given the link: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2009037/SK5_delivered_followup_from_ol.html&sa=U&ei=rnhPUajFM4TE2gXiooCgDQ&ved=0CAcQFjAA&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNFo05ZiOa7KBrLDPFBSFuklvNgJUw

Hope this works and maybe helps the OP.

Everything on here is helping me -- including the debate on what "spec" means!

BTW, "specifications" and "speculation" were exactly the two possibilities I was guessing. The immediate context of the post seemed to suggest "speculation" (I'm aware of spec homes, which BTW are very often built before having any buyer) but the context of the thread seemed to suggest the other, so I just didn't know, and figured maybe it was something else entirely.

What is important is the discussion of the success of a large piano in a low ceiling space. To Rebuild, or Not to Rebuild, is a secondary question. Mark, barn raising parties were once common, how about a ceiling raising party?

LFL - Could you edit your post using "link to a webpage" feature in the full reply screen? It is located just to the right of the "emoticon" insertion button. That long URL has made this post difficult to read. - Thanks.

In a perfect world, we would all live in homes with a music room that was acoustically perfect for our (also perfect) piano and music set-up. But in the real world, we can all put up with a room that is serviceable and possibly improvable, at least for a few years. A rug here, a couch there. In my case, I had to put a two-story drape over a naked sheetrock wall to tame the sound reflections that were going head-to-head. A 16-foot ceiling is not necessarily All That.

If you really don't find that it will serve, you can move up more easily than you can tear out a ceiling (which will create a white elephant for some poor realtor to deal with). Anyway, the contractors are all used up, for the time being. In a few years there will be more (and new) housing stock.

I'm really sorry you had to suffer through Sandy--- and Congress's behavior was almost worse than the storm. And considering the novelty of a weather system that was a hurricane on the front side and a blizzard on the back side, that is saying something.

+1

Having shopped for, bought, and renovated several houses so far in my life, I can say with confidence there is no such thing as a perfect house. But it is entirely possible to find one that hits all the important criteria. There aren't as many decisions as important as house-buying. Take your time to wait until you feel good about your choice.

I, too, had this as a part of my criteria when searching for a home in FL. If we didn't have a room that would mainly be occupied by my piano and also have another room that could serve as our den and dining area, then it was not in consideration. I think it's pretty much a buyer's market these days (but not sure of NY), so keep your eyes open for something else.

In theory, I agree.
But we can't.


It's an extreme seller's market -- maybe as extreme as there has ever been.


Thanks, Jeff -- and thanks to everyone again for the sympathy and well wishes. And well said about the political aspects, but....happily we at least aren't affected by that. We're well covered by insurance (unusually well covered), to the point that when we see stuff in the media about victims of the storm, we hardly identify with it. Our life has been turned upside down, but we're far more fortunate than most.

Oddly, while we're not far from the water, water had nothing to do with it. (We're sort of up on a hill too!) Huge old tree (huge!) got blown over and fell on house -- from long distance, meaning that it had great velocity.

I can't help but think how lucky your piano wasn't ruined along with the house!

I've been surprised how one of the first questions I got from almost everybody, including friends who aren't into piano or classical music, was "Did anything happen to the piano?"

I concede it must be terribly frustrating and difficult to be house-hunting when your present home is badly damaged (and I'm guessing not able to be occupied).

Would it be possible to take on a short-term rental/lease that would give you someplace to live while you take your time to find/build a house more to your liking? Yeah, moving twice is a pain and an uproar, but I keep coming back to the point that this is a decision you want to be happy with for years.

We have such a lease. It's what has allowed us to have some semblance of normality and order to this whole thing -- but it's not a whole lot of normality and order. It has been a very great strain, and our need to get settled again is a very big factor. So yes, I'm more willing to take some chance on this acoustics thing than to just keep waiting. But I wouldn't do it unless it seemed there was a good chance that it could work quite well -- which was why I did this thread. The replies have been extremely helpful.

Okay, this may be a bizarre suggestion, but here goes: Would it be possible to move your piano to the prospective house for a day and see what it actually would sound like in the new home? Would the sellers even consent to a trial like that? Yeah, it would be pretty expensive. But in the large scheme of things (how much the house is going to cost, and how long you'll be there), it may be worth it for the peace of mind.

Very interesting and I think good idea. Even better if the room is still furnished.

Other thoughts...

In this house you're considering. If it doesn't work out with the piano. Is it one that you can add a room on the back of the house for the piano?

How about just having a doublewide trailer moved onto your property. Then, when you can. Rebuild your house. Might even rent the trailer.

You can estimate the acoustics of the room by walking around it and clapping your hands. It will let you know where to put the piano.

I would consider tearing the ceiling out. Filling it with acoustic insulation. Then acoustic ceiling put back in. Should take care of the low ceiling problem.

Tremendous idea -- but no, it's not possible, for several reasons.
Main reason: The seller would have no reason to consider it, because it's such a hot market for sellers of such properties that there would be plenty of easier buyers to turn to.

And secondly, in view of the above, to have any chance for the house, we needed to proceed quickly -- and we did. (It was a multiple-bid situation, with several other buyers also fighting for it.) It's now a done deal. We signed the contract yesterday.

All of the suggestions in this thread have been very good, but some assumed a more leisurely situation than what this was -- first of all because of our personal situation, and even more so because of the current market. That's why I needed just to get the best prospective info I could -- which I felt I did from this discussion and the similar one on Pianist Corner -- and to decide if the outlook seemed favorable enough, which I thought it did. Sometimes you just have to take a chance, and I wound up thinking that this easily was a good enough chance, especially in view of all the options that have been noted. I would have loved to reduce the chance of error to 0, but I couldn't.


Good idea too, but no, that's not possible because there isn't enough land. Otherwise we definitely would have considered it.


We are thinking of something like that. We'll be discussing the whole thing with our personnel (architect, engineer, contractor, whomever) and even before moving the piano or anything else into the house, we may just do it.

The important thing is that you got the house you wanted, and I feel confident you will be able to work out the acoustics one way or the other. Congratulations, and I am sure you and your family will be tremendously glad to move into your new home.

Thank you Monica!
And really, thanks to everyone who helped on this thread and the one on Pianist Corner. The perspectives and information that I got here enabled me to feel OK about going ahead. And don't worry -- if it happens not to work out, I won't be blaming you!

I'm sure enough that it'll be fine.

Update:

IT'S GREAT.

The house was finally ready for us to move in, and I was thrilled to find that the acoustics are more than fine -- less resonance than there would be with a higher ceiling, but real good nevertheless, and somehow a very rich sound.

Thanks to everyone who helped on this thread. It really did help me be confident that it was likely this would be all right, maybe if necessary with some extra work -- and I was thrilled to find that it's good just as it is.