When you are getting piano repair estimates on your instrument, it’s a good idea to come prepared. In an 
ideal world people would have whatever is wrong be whatever it was and no one would try and take them for a ride. Unfortunately we live in the real world where some people will give you a fair shake and others will rob you blind if they could. For that reason there’s a few things you should know about piano repair and getting that repair estimate.
What’s Being Done – Is your repair cosmetic? Or is your repair restorative? For most piano buffs it’s the latter; people will deal with a few scuffs on the exterior of their grand pianos but no one can stand for too long a piano with a defective soundboard.
What’s the Process – Another question you need to ask whomever you opt to do your piano repair job is what their assessment of your piano is. How will they fix the piano? Is this going to be a complete replacement of broken parts? Or will this be a simple band aid? If all that’s called for is “repair” that might be okay but just make sure that you’re not going to have to send your piano out again in another six months for the same issue.
Who Are the Operators – Who is going to be working on your piano? What is their level of experience. This is another big thing to know about your piano repair staff because even if you’ve got younger hands doing the lay-work you want to be sure that there is a watchful eye keeping tabs on what’s going on with your piano. You would hate to have wet-behind-the-ears staff take apart your piano because they have just never encountered the problems you’re having and because they have no one watching above them.
Piano Upkeep – Once you have your piano repair all finished it’s a good idea to find out what happened with your piano in the first place. If you are pressing down too hard on the pedals or you are striking the upper keys too hard these are good things to know. You can’t keep making the same mistakes which cause the same problems. Piano tuning is also a must when it comes to upkeep.
Know the answers to these questions and you’ll be okay. Also make sure the repair team on your piano is one you can trust.