Moving the Piano

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I have tried to work on a few Pianos. I forget about the woodworking that goes into the construction, until I open one up.

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[Zachary Hoyt]

Ten years ago I had to take the innards out of a spinet piano to get it up a flight of stairs with a U turn in it. I got it all back together upstairs, but it took an hour or two.

[Lee Schierer]

Moving a piano is not fun. The wheels never want to roll. When my daughter moved from one house to another, I built a lifting frame out of 2 x 4's so that four guys could pick the whole thing up and walk away with it. One 2 x 4 ran under the keyboard and stuck out the ends about 18-24". A similar 2 x 4 the same length ran across the back. There were short pieces of 2 x 4 cut to fit between the two long 2 x 4's. These were held in place by long screws through the lifting boards. On the back where the lifting handles are located, there were other short pieces of 2 x 4 that fit up against the bottom of the handles so the back long 2 x 4 wouldn't move up. These were attached to the long back 2 x 4 with screws. The piano looked like it was on a stretcher. At the new location , the frame was easily removed and no harm was done to the piano.

[John Stankus]

Rent a set of piano jacks. They make moving a piano “relatively” easy.
https://www.lindseyrentals.com/equipment.asp?action=category&category=24&key=DOLP
(No affiliation just a google search to show what I mean by piano jacks)

[Dave Fritz]

My friend is a piano technician. He helped me move a baby grand for my aunt. Amazing how easy it was.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I wish some of you guys could come over today. I really enjoyed watching George Wilson build the Harpsichord and Violin in the videos that Andrew Seemann shared. I made ill-informed attempts to keep an old and a very old piano playable. We ended up getting this one brand new in 2011. I am worried about scratching it or breaking off a wheel.

[Bill Dufour]

Old neighbor had a portable piano. Made in Japan? right before digital pianos were good enough for a show. Keyboard was separate from the string section. No legs just set on special table. I do not remember if it had foot pedals.
Bill D

[Alan Rutherford]

I helped move an upright once. Everybody involved was young, strong and eager (the owner was young, female and single) and we just picked it up and marched out the kitchen door. At least that's how I remember that part. There were about 3 steps down to the ground and someone's foot went through one of them. It didn't go so well from there.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

We got it done with no mishaps. I was able to back the van right up to both locations. I used an old solid core door for a ramp and lifting was kept to a minimum. It definitely helped to have the young'ns for the unload. Thanks for the advice and moral support. I forgot to take a picture of the soundboard to see if I could find the glue joints with the help of zoom. At a glance it looks like 1 board 6 feet wide . Nice spruce too, I think, assuming the Chinese have access to Spruce. It was fun to get it back to our Son. He plays nicely.

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[Tim Elett]

I remember when my dad and brothers and I moved one down a flight of stairs. Some things I wish I could forget.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The one that will replace this one is on the third floor of a old, urban house. It is smaller and lighter. When it is time to move that one I think we will hire professionals. The inaccessibility of the one on the third floor is what lead to our having the two old freebies. They wren both on the ground level.

[Jack Frederick]

In ‘74 I was on a road trip which had me in LA for some “revenue renewing.” I ended up working with a moving company and we had to move Liberace’s piano to Las Vegas. It was enormous. You only ever saw Liberace with a big smile on his face, but he was kind enough to stop by and threaten us with serious consequences if the piano was scratched. I was just muscle on that job but it was an interesting project.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Jack, That is a cool story! He is (was) the candelabra guy right? We have the Blind Boone home and piano in our town. Blind Boone traveled with his own piano too. It is a monster with massive oak casework. Roadies have to be tough! I am not much of a musician but lately I play a ukulele inspired mandolin. The portability is great. The Harmonica is also a handy instrument.

[John K Jordan]

I’ve moved several upright pianos for myself and others, one eas my upright player piano (removed the action first). I have a 7’ SF-10 Baldwin grand (maybe 1200-1400 lb) that I only have moved by professional piano movers. Two big guys come, remove the legs and pedals, strap a big padded case with handles around it and lift onto a dolly - across floors/sidewalks, up/down stairs, up a ramp into a truck. If there are too many stairs they bring a 3rd big guy. I’ve had it moved 5 times. Never a scratch.

Two or three guys can move a typical upright, just 2 for a spinnet. Never roll one on its wheels, always roll it on a dolly or two. I had to remove a picture window to get one into a house, stood another on its end to get it through a tight spot.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I am sorer than usual today. We were trying to guess the weight of this one. I think it was around 400 with the covers off. It does have a real sand cast harp which is a big portion of the weight.

[Ernie Miller]

In the early 1990's I worked for Baldwin and was the tuner for all of the Baldwin artists who gave concerts in my area. Liberace was one of them.
Sometime in the 1980's, the cost of moving one of these beasts (a bit over 1,000 lbs) became prohibitive and most pianists stopped supplying their own pianos. Liberace traveled (sometimes) with a plexiglass lid that was installed onto a Baldwin concert grand sent to the concert hall by Baldwin. Not knowing the condition of the piano, pianist's contracts stated that the piano must be tuned before each concert. At times, I ended up tuning the same piano twice in a single day. Fun times!

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Our previous piano was a Baldwin. It was given away for free by a small town elementary school. Vandals had broken in and used it for demolition derby, ending with a trip down a small flight of stairs. A tribute to the Baldwin school model piano, it held together. It required a lot of patching up and some new wires and double wound bass strings. The end result was confirmation that I am not a piano technician.

[John K Jordan]

I am sorer than usual today. We were trying to guess the weight of this one. I think it was around 400 with the covers off. It does have a real sand cast harp which is a big portion of the weight.

Every piano I've seen or worked on had a heavy cast iron plate.

I once disassembled an old upright to take it to the dump to make room for a new piano arriving the next day. The plate was the heaviest piece. If doing this, use caution - the total tension on the strings is tremendous, something around 20 tons I think, and can cause injury to the incautious.