How to move piano?

Jeyden

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Hello. I need some tips how to move piano... maybe someone of you have such experience
 
Maybe you need to find the Piano Underground forum! :rolleyes:
 
Hello. I need some tips how to move piano... maybe someone of you have such experience

Pianos are particularly heavy and some are liable to be damaged when moved. My best advice would be to talk to your Piano Tuner and to seek specialist skills. For an Upright Piano a ‘Dolly’ (Trolley) might be enough to mount the Piano on for easy movement, I’ve seen a single man with the right tools and skills move a Piano but really it’s a job for an expert. Of course if the Piano has little value then two men might move an upright piano - check the back at each end for lifting handles and build up your muscles first too.

TLDR: Your best bet is to get expert help.
 
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When we moved from the apartment to the house, we paid a guy who specializes in moving pianos. It will be well worth the money if you find a specialist, especially if stairs are involved. Good luck. I think it was about $300 well spent. Needed a tuning afterwards, about another $100 or so.

Yes, for sure. There is a reason why there are people who specialize in this. Pianos are extremely heavy and have a great deal of delicate mechanism. It is really easy to either get hurt trying to move one or cause damage to the instrument that will cost FAR more to repair than the cost of moving it.
 
Find three or four young strong men between late teens and mid thirties. Seriously, when my in-laws moved into their new house all of us young guys in the family lifted their upright piano up and carried it out of the old house, into a truck, then out of the truck and into the new house. Thirty five years later, same three men, tried to move it out of the room so that they could put down carpet. We couldn't budge it. So we called in our own sons who came over, picked it up and carried it in the other room while we drank beer and supervised.
 
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I'm pretty sure I would've been an inch taller, if I hadn't (foolishly) volunteered to help move my (now ex-)girlfriend's piano up a few stairs. Call in the experts!
 
I knew someone would post that Laurel and Hardy clip!
 
Some years ago, I was riding my motorcycle on a very narrow country lane, near The Long Mynd in Shropshire, when I rounded a bend and was confronted by four men proceeding down the road pushing an upright piano on a sack truck/hand truck. There were no dwellings in sight in either direction.

They seemed to be enjoying the experience.

John Colter

ps. It's a good job I was able to stop - I reckon I'd have found the lost chord!
 
Some years ago, I was riding my motorcycle on a very narrow country lane, near The Long Mynd in Shropshire, when I rounded a bend and was confronted by four men proceeding down the road pushing an upright piano on a sack truck/hand truck. There were no dwellings in sight in either direction.

They seemed to be enjoying the experience.

John Colter

ps. It's a good job I was able to stop - I reckon I'd have found the lost chord!

Maybe they were stealing it. ;)
 
Some years ago, I was riding my motorcycle on a very narrow country lane, near The Long Mynd in Shropshire, when I rounded a bend and was confronted by four men proceeding down the road pushing an upright piano on a sack truck/hand truck. There were no dwellings in sight in either direction.

They seemed to be enjoying the experience.

John Colter

ps. It's a good job I was able to stop - I reckon I'd have found the lost chord!

That must have been quite a sight in itself and IIRC some of the lanes in that area can be quite steep - particularly difficult and dangerous with a heavy load. I can’t envisage anyone moving such a heavy item like that in recent decades, even in rural Shropshire, but I love the fact that they did. To my mind we over complicate a lot of stuff and reject simple solutions from the past in favour of ‘modern efficiency’. Of course something with an engine allows one to do the otherwise ‘impossible’ but it’s amazing what you can shift with ‘hand power’ and the right cart, trolley or barrow. H’mm, hand power and simple, must be a link to Ukes somewhere there.

I love bikes and motorcycles too, wonderful ‘simple’ devices for taking people out of transport poverty and allowing them to fulfil their dreams and their potential - having had a Motorcycle you’ll understand how life liberating they can be. Bikes are a bit on the slow side and so effectively limit horizons to tens of miles, but they are still life changing and very affordable. Motorcycles offer much wider horizons but cost more to run and aren’t necessarily that safe but, having said that, a surprisingly large percentage of accidents are the result of operator error - even a moderate speed accident on a motorcycle can kill or disable so much and constant care are needed.

Oh dear, thread drift.
 
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I worked in a mall once. At Christmas they would bring in an organ from the local dealer and someone would play it. After Christmas two men showed up with coverals and a clipboard, checked the sn on the organ and took it. The next day two men showed up from the dealer.....

Instructions on piano moving:
1.) Google a piano mover
2.) get out your check book
3,) Tell your doctor that he will have to wait on redecorating his off because no hernia operation from you.
 
There's a good reason why "Piano Movers" is a seperate listing in the yellow pages. For those younger folks out there, the "yellow pages" is/was a printed telephone directory listing businesses in a given area. It was printed on yellow paper.

That being said, I had a pianist friend who owned a lovely nine foot grand. He routinely moved it himself, but only from his living room to his bedroom/music room. First, he'd lay out a small rug next to the straight side of the piano. Then he'd loosen and remove the legs on that side one at a time, carefully lowering the piano onto the rug. Then he'd remove the remaining leg, and push the piano standing on its side down the hallway to his bedroom/ music room. Of course, then he'd reverse the process to set the piano up again.
 
I've been looking into this myself. My wife wants a piano, and there are usually several in the "free" column on Craigslist. For the price of the piano (free) it's worth hiring professional movers...
 
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