Piano Moving tips

Indispensable piano moving tips, you must read this before even attempting to move your piano.

 You should be aware of the weight of the piano being moved before you move it. Most of the weight of any piano comes from its extremely heavy cast iron harp. Small upright pianos only weigh 300 to 400 lbs. because they have a smaller cast iron harp than big upright pianos. Big uprights run from 600 lbs. thru 800 lbs. Big old player uprights can even hit 1000 lbs. because of the heavy player mechanism. The biggest upright piano height only runs up to 60 inches, topping out in weight at 8 - 900 lbs.

The smallest grand piano starts at 54 inches long which is equivalent to a 54 inch tall upright and weighs about 5 - 600 lbs. Grands can extend out to 108 inches long for a 9' concert grand topping out at 1000-1200 lbs. Liberace's piano was an especially made - monstrous 12 foot long grand piano weighing over 1500 lbs. He had it custom made just for him because he knew that the longer the grand piano is the better the base notes sound during play. Higher piano notes come from straight strings so their length doesn't matter much but base notes come from wound strings so the longer the piano, the longer the base string, the better it resonates.

Large grand pianos are quite heavy, even more so than large upright pianos. Grand pianos can weigh anywhere from 500 to 1200 lbs. Baby grand pianos are 4 foot 6 inches to 6 foot 6 inches long and they can weigh between 500 and 800 lbs. But longer grand pianos weigh much more and should always be moved by professionals because the piano dollies have about an 800 - 900 lb. weight restriction. In fact, just because of their extreme weight, big uprights over 42' high or grand pianos which are 5 1/2 feet long or longer should always be moved by professionals. Pianos smaller than that can be moved by 4 or 5 amateurs with a little bit of training as long as they do not have to traverse over 4 steps in the move path.

PIANO CASTERS

Pianos should not be rolled around on their casters. The casters are mainly decorative and not very functional at all. Over time, as the piano sits in one place, the casters tend to deteriorate and jam up and when you go to push the piano on them they can stick in place and then they'll gouge your hardwood floors or tear your carpeting.

Pushing a grand piano around on its leg casters puts pressure on the legs and has been known to cause a leg to break. The same is true for a small upright piano with 2 front decorative legs. Big uprights are so constructed that they can better endure being pushed around a bit on their casters but their casters tend to jam up easily. Therefore, all in all, pushing a piano around on its casters is not a very good idea.

However, if you've checked to see that none of the casters are frozen, a few of you can lift a grand piano up a bit and move it around. Just don't push it on its legs. With a small upright a couple of you can lift its front end up a bit as you push it on its rear casters but only when its weight is not bearing down on the front legs.