If you are a piano owner, you have at some point needed to have your piano moved from one place to another. This article will explain the does and donts of hiring movers and help you keep your piano from being damaged.
When you are moving into a new home or apartment, it is tempting to have your regular movers move your piano. Every moving company will SWEAR that they have experience moving pianos. Why? Simple. They want your business. The truth is, regular movers do not have experience moving pianos and they treat it with the same care as moving a sofa. The net result: your piano will get damaged.
How likely is it that your piano might get damaged? Are you ready for the real answer? There is about a 50% chance your piano will be dropped. In just one week, for example, I received THREE phonecalls from customers who said their piano was dropped during moving. Three. How many calls like this have I received during all my years as a piano tuner? At least twenty.
A grand piano weighs about 600 lbs. A sofa weighs about 100 lbs. The average mover makes only a little over minimum wage and has little more than a high school education. He sees a piano, attempts to pick it up with one of his friends and quickly realizes it is a lot heavier than he first thought. Not wanting to appear incapable, he uses all his strength and attempts to continue carrying it. Withing minutes his arms give out and that 600 lb object drops from waist level straight to the ground. The wooden frame is smashed causing thousands of dollars in damage. But no problem: the mover is insured, right? Think again. Rarely have my customers succeeded in collecting insurance settlements from moving companies. They simply stop returning your calls.
Recently on of my customers had a baby grand piano valued at about $12000. The mover lifted it from the small end and used so much strength that he literally flipped the piano over. The brass pedals were bent like spoons and had to be special ordered from Japan which took months. The beautiful thing is, all this was captured on the client’s nanny cam. See the video here:
Another issue is that regular movers have no idea how to assemble or disassemble a piano. This means that 9/10 times the pedals to not get attached properly and you need to hire a technician to fix them. Often they loose small parts that are critical and they must be special ordered. Also frequently they do not know how to attach the legs so your piano will be crippled on the floor until someone like L.A. Piano Tuning can come and fix the problem.
What do professional piano movers offer that regular movers don’t. First: Experience. Piano movers are specialists. They have handled thousands of pianos small and large. They know how much they weigh. They know how to lift them properly. They know whether they should bring three movers instead of two. Second: Equipment. Piano movers have a range of special dolleys, straps, and protective cloths to make sure that neither your piano, nor your floors get damaged.
In the same way that piano movers are superior to regular movers, not all piano movers are created equal. I have always used a company called D&J Piano and Organ Moving. No matter how difficult the job, they always came prepared and have never ever damaged my instrument. I have always had total piece of mind knowing my piano was in good hands.
D&J Piano and Organ Moving
(626) 334-1053
(800) 398-9798
Please let them know L.A. Piano Tuning Referred you!
Good luck and happy moving!