A Specialist Team and Gear Made for an Instrument That Forgives Nothing
Picture the thing itself: hundreds of pounds of cast-iron frame under a glossy lacquer shell that bends for no one and keeps the record of every careless knock. Let a general crew wing it around a narrow Northwood corner and a permanent gouge is all but certain. So we send this work to a unit that handles pianos and nothing else. Their kit puts the instrument on a wheeled keyboard skid and a fitted board, secures it with ratchet straps, and builds up layers of heavy pads. Nobody outside our crew touches it, which means no fill-in hand ever risks a sharp turn with it rocking.
Gear and Method
- Heavy pads, ratchet straps, a four-wheel dolly and a board cut to the instrument
- On grands, the pedal lyre and legs come off for wrapping while the body rides the board
- A team used to the close turns and stairwells of older Northwood and two-story coastal homes
- Walls, doorframes, railings and floors shielded along the whole carry
- Strapped down tight enough to stay still the entire trip
The Way the Morning Goes
The team starts by mapping the route, laying floor cover, and draping each railing and wall before anything tips. An upright stays upright, lashed to the dolly. On a grand, off come the pedal mechanism and the legs to be wrapped, the body settles onto a padded board, and it rolls out on edge inside its frame. If there’s a paver driveway or a rain-slick walk, we clear and grit both the route and the ramp ahead of the first lift, since a single misstep under that kind of mass is the very accident this whole approach exists to head off. At a downtown loft or mid-rise, a reserved freight car keeps the instrument off the stairs altogether.
Outside Our Scope
Delivering it unharmed is on us; booking the tuning afterward is on you, ideally around two weeks out, once the instrument adjusts to the new room and the coastal humidity. Mechanical repairs and worn casters go to a technician as well. If a leg is loose or the finish already carries a crack, tell us up front so we can plan the route around it.
Pricing
Plan on roughly $320 to $480 for a console or upright and $520 to $800 for a baby grand; each band climbs once stairs, or a long carry to the door, come into it. One of us sets the exact total after looking at the instrument and its route together.
Put the specialist team on your instrument move at (888) 711-4778.
