How to move an upright piano, and when to call a specialist

Moving an upright piano safely takes at least two experienced people, a piano dolly or board, straps, padding and a route planned in advance with every doorway and stair turn measured. The piano stays strapped and supported the whole way, never rolls on its own casters, and gets time to settle before tuning. Grand pianos and outdoor staircases are specialist work.

Why is an upright piano harder to move than it looks?

Because of where the weight is. An upright piano weighs several hundred pounds, and most of that is the cast-iron plate inside, sitting high and toward the back. It is top-heavy in a way no dresser is, which means it wants to tip the moment it is off level. It is also more delicate than it looks: the legs, the casters and the thin wooden panels are not built to take a load, and the keyboard sticks out where every door frame can hit it.

The piano's own casters are the trap people fall into. They look like wheels, but they are decorative or meant for an inch of adjustment, and rolling a piano across a room on them can break them, gouge the floor or catch on a threshold and send the whole instrument forward.

What equipment does a piano move need?

• A four-wheel piano dolly rated for the weight, so the piano rolls on the dolly and never on its own casters.
• A piano board, sometimes called a skid, for stairs and for any surface a dolly cannot cross.
• Ratchet or moving straps to hold the piano to the dolly or board.
• Thick moving pads to wrap the whole case, with the lid closed and the keyboard covered.
• Floor protection for hardwood and a ramp or boards for thresholds and porch steps.
• Enough trained people. Two is the minimum on flat ground; stairs need more.

If any item on that list is missing, the move is being improvised, and pianos punish improvisation.

How do you plan the route?

Walk it before anyone lifts. Start where the piano sits now and end where it will stand, and measure every doorway, hallway and staircase in between. For stairs, the measurement that matters is not the width of the steps but the turn: the diagonal at the landing, and the ceiling height above it. Old Capital Region houses, from Troy row houses to Center Square brownstones, are full of staircases that are wide enough and still impossible at the turn.

1. Measure the piano: height, width and depth, including the keyboard.
2. Measure every opening on the route, and the diagonal and headroom at every stair turn.
3. Remove anything in the way: rugs, hall tables, pictures at shoulder height, doors if needed.
4. Plan where the truck will park and how the piano gets from the door to the ramp.
5. Decide exactly where the piano will stand at the other end before it arrives.

What happens on the stairs?

The stairs are where pianos get damaged and people get hurt. On a staircase the piano is strapped to a board and moved one step at a time, with the crew below it controlling the weight and the crew above it guiding and holding back. Nobody stands below a piano without a way to control it, and nobody rushes. A staircase that turns is slower still, because the piano has to be pivoted at the landing without touching the walls or the banister.

Outdoor stairs add weather, uneven steps and often no railing, and in an upstate winter they add ice. That is one of the two situations where we send people to a piano specialist rather than take the job ourselves.

When should you call a piano specialist?

For a grand piano, and for any piano going up or down an outside staircase. A grand has to have its legs and lyre removed and travel on its side on a padded board, and that rigging is a separate trade with its own equipment. We move uprights and spinets and refer grands, because telling you that is better than guessing on something that valuable.

It is also worth a specialist for a piano with real monetary or family value that is in poor condition, since an old case or a loose leg can fail during handling. A good general mover will tell you when a job belongs to someone else.

What should you do after the piano is moved?

Let it settle, then tune it. A move, and the change in temperature and humidity that comes with it, almost always pushes a piano out of tune. Most tuners suggest waiting a couple of weeks in the new room before tuning, so the instrument adjusts to its new conditions first.

Where it stands matters in this climate. Keep it away from radiators, heating vents and drafty exterior walls, and out of direct sun. Capital Region winters are dry indoors and summers are humid, and a piano does best in a room where those swings are gentle. It also should not go into an unheated storage unit for the winter; if it has to be stored, it needs a climate-controlled space.

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