How Pianos Are Moved

Anyone with even a little bit of curiosity inevitably wonders how pianos get moved. How do you fit a grand piano through a door? How do you get a piano up the fifth floor?

Unless the piano is very small and light, it is almost always placed on a special skid called a piano board. The piano is covered with blankets and strapped to the board. If the piano is to be moved over a level surface for any distance, the piano board is put on a dolly—a small platform on wheels—and rolled to its destination, such as a truck or a stairway. At the stairway, the dolly is removed and the piano board is slid in a very slow and controlled manner up or down the stairs.

A grand piano is moved on its side, straight side down. First the lid and the pedal lyre are removed. Then the leg at the straight side of the piano is removed and the piano is carefully lowered down to the piano board. (Some movers unscrew and remove the lid hinges because they overhang the case side and would otherwise cause damage to the case when the piano is put on its side. Others prefer to position the piano so the hinges overhang the edge of the piano board.) After the remaining two legs are removed, the piano is covered with blankets and strapped to the board. Stripped down in this manner, a grand piano is quite think and will actually fit through a door or other opening easily.

When a piano must be moved to or from a floor other than the first, many movers prefer to hoist or rig it rather than move it up or down stairs. Believe it or not, moving a piano by stairs is actually more dangerous, both to the piano and to the movers, than hoisting it through an upper-story window with a crane. Most movers will consent to moving by stairs when only one flight is involved, or when no other alternative is possible. Of course, if the building has a freight elevator that can support the piano, that method is preferred over all others.

Basically, it is the customer's responsibility to make sure the piano will fit in its new location. This means not expecting a piano to be hoisted in a window that's too small or carried down a stairway with too low an overhang or moved around a corner that's too tight. Corners are the hardest to judge because they can't be easily measured. An experienced mover can usually judge these situations pretty accurately by eye and may prefer to visit the moving sites prior to moving day if there is any question about the difficulty of the job (Beethoven Pianos can perform a moving assessment for difficult moving jobs). This probably won't be possible if the move is a long-distance one. If the piano won't fit in its intended location, the customer will have to pay for its delivery back to its point of departure, to an alternate destination, or to storage.

It is our opinion at Beethoven Pianos that "keyboarding" a vertical piano—that is, removing the front part (keybed, keys, action) to maneuver the piano around a tight corner—is an acceptable procedure that will not damage the piano so long as disassembly is performed by a very knowledgeable professional. Because of our many years of experience rebuilding Steinway and other pianos we are uniquely qualified to handle these situations. We rebuild pianos every day! Be sure that your piano mover possesses the necessary knowledge to properly keyboard a piano.

Beethoven Pianos offers expert piano moving service. Please call 1-800-241-001 for more information.

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