Why Not to Move a Piano Yourself

This excerpt is from "Piano Moving and Storage," The Piano Book by Larry Fine.

Movers like to tell stories like this one:

A young woman asked her father to help her move a piano from one place to another in her house. Her father got a couple of his friends to come along and they brought a dolly. While they were lifting the piano -- a full-size vertical -- it tipped back too far and got away from them. While it was falling, its upper corner dug down through the wall. The trench it made was deep enough to sever an electric conduit, which shorted and began to burn. The "movers" were unable to stop the fire, which also spread to the floor below, another person's apartment. After the fire department was done, there was little left of the two apartments and the piano.

Obviously, this is an extreme example of the damage that can be inflicted when moving a piano in do-it-yourself fashion. But even if you don't burn down your house, there is a substantial risk of personal injury, not to mention damage to the piano.

Pianos are very heavy. The average spinet or console weights in at from three hundred to five hundred, but sometimes as much as a thousand. Grands vary from about five hundred to a thousand pounds, though a concert grand may weight as much as thirteen hundred. If it were simply a matter of weight, though, all it would take would be enough strong people to do the job. Unfortunately, along with the weight come problems of balance and inertia, knowledge of which can make all the difference in doing a moving job safely and efficiently. Piano moving may conjure up images of men with monstrous arms and huge torsos, but actually two or three people of average build can do most moving jobs -- even grands -- if they have some brains, experience, the right equipment, and a knowledge of just when and where to apply a little force.

-- The Piano Book, by Larry Fine has an entire chapter devoted to Piano Moving and Storage, describing in detail how pianos are moved by professional movers, what to look for when hiring a piano mover, why you would want to hire movers who specialize in moving pianos, and more.