Moving a piano

[tinkler]

Hi - I need to move an old upright piano into a room, where there is not enough turning roon to just wheel it through the door. Is it possible to take the hammers etc out and then up end the piano onto its side to get it through the door?? I am worried that it may cause too much damage to the piano. Any body know the answer??

Thanks

[mound]

You could read this:

https://www.stevespianoservice.com/chap-5.htm

to learn about how to open up and remove the action in your piano.

But be careful! This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to be honest with you 

also be very careful when wheeling it around, use two guys with broad shoulders holding the handles on the back and the other hand by the keyboard.. These are massive beasts, some upward of a thousand pounds, and their center of gravity is such that it will easilly tip over if not handled properly..

-Paul

[donjuan]

Ah, so youre too cheap to hire professional piano movers.  You should really consider doing so because the piano is a really expensive item to have fall and break.  I had a friend who tried to redneck his piano out of the house- he got a bunch of his friends, they loaded it up on a pickup truck and off they went.  Well, the action was ruined and the soundboard cracked in a number of different places.  Dont be a redneck like my friend, just hire someone to move it.
donjuan

[Ed Thomas]

tinkler,

I don't quite understand the dilemma.  Is the door too small?  Is the turn too tight?  Is the room too narrow?

Pianos can be upended (grands are laid on their side all the time to move them).  Make sure the action is secured or out.  But check first to see if there is a way to remove the obstructions.  Almost all doorways can be dismantled to some degree.  Just be prepared to put in a little putty, replace some nails, and paint over the damage.  I'm puzzled that you can gain enough with the piano on its side instead of upright to be worth the trouble.  If that is the case, your piano isn't very tall, and probably only weighs a few hundred pounds.   

[Ed Thomas]

So what happened with this piano move???  Did you solve the problem?

[tinkler]

Move is scheduled for next weekend..............

[alextryan]

I just moved a 42 inch Kimball console without movers. I had a piano dolly, four guys at each end, a cargo van, a good racheting lashing strap, and some advice from professionals.  It all went surprisingly well.  I took as many photos as I could, when I wasn't helping:

www.alexryan.net/photos.html

There you can see the photos from the move day, and from today when I've been disassembling it to clean out 20 years of dust from the previous owner. 

So if  you have any specific questions, I can give some first-hand reflections and/or advice.

[Ed Thomas]

Alex:  What were the other 3 guys for?   

tinkler:  Sooo... how did the move go???

[tinkler]

The mov wwent really well actually - took three of them to do it, and after taking the hammer rack out and removing as many panels as possible, they managed to up end it and move it surprisingly easy. Having been put together again, it is surprisingly well tuned, although I have a professional coming in soon to do the job properly!

[Ed Thomas]

tinkler:  Great!  Glad it all went smoothly.

I've moved pianos fairly often in my life... and have the odor to prove it.  No... wait... that wasn't where I was going with that.  Actually what I was smiling about was that so many of the moves are fairly funny episodes.  For instance, my cousin was a piano tuner at the main music store in Charleston SC while I lived there.  I stopped in to see him just when they needed to move a 9' Baldwin to a downtown church.  The moving truck was out, so he and I and one other man just rolled the piano on the dolly right out the back door, down the street and into the church a few blocks away.  We set it up and he was tuning... all within an hour or so.  The looks we got during that trip were great.