A Piano is one of the most delicate thing in your house. It requires a great care while using, handling, storing and restoring. It is a heavy item that has a weight in an odd fashion. The upper part is heavier while the feet are fragile. The giant pianos have long heavy structure but the lower part is light and may break if not handled with care.
Whether you are doing a full house move or just single piano, it becomes a huge hassle and a task of worry. Moving a single piece is equally difficult if either you are moving across city or across the country, you will prefer it be moved safely. It should be best moved by professional movers for safe and scratchless delivery. As we all have seen in cartoons, a piano being thrown from height and breaks into several pieces. But you will definitely not be amused if such accident happens with you. So at last we all come to the same conclusion of hiring an expert mover. We will help you on some factors like cost calculation, piano moving cost and breakdown.
How The Moving Cost is Calculated
Generally professional moving companies charge in 2 ways:
Hourly Rate
Mostly you will find movers who charge for minimum number of hours like 3 hours. Moving within a town takes a calculated time of 3 hours that includes carrying the piano from your home, loading it on the truck, travelling time from source to destination, unloading from truck and placing it safely on the new location.
Fixed Rate
Other movers shall segregate the cost in levels of moving it. They include the type of piano (by weight), the distance of relocation and other hurdles like stairs, lift, tight spaces. Sometimes they also consider the number of movers required to do the entire job.
Professional moving companies don’t have standard rates. So if you want to receive the best and affordable deals then you should provide specific details to the them. Look for 3-4 companies and ask their quotes in order to compare their packages.
It’s good to inform your mover beforehand, about the it’s type with exact height and width dimensions. Height to be measured from lid to floor and length to measured from its bow to the end of keyboard. Details like regular, standard or average does not helps the professional movers in context of figuring out the size of the piano. So it is better if you could tell them the exact model name and make year.
Cost Breakdown
- Local: For moving it within town it can cost between $150 to $250 for an upright piano, for a grand/baby grand it can cost upto $600.
- Inter City: For moving within cities they can charge from $800 to $1800. This estimate can vary depending upon the travelling distance with cities.
- Stairs: Stairs are billable per step i.e. per stair and you can be charged $2 and $10 per stair. You can also ask for a flat fee rate of $70 for a flight of stairs.
- Insurance: Your piano is insured on the basis of weight. Generally it will be 550 pounds for an upright one, 600 pounds for a baby grand and a grand piano weighs 800 pounds. Some insurance companies charge as per the monetary value instead of weight and that can be $10/$1000 of piano value.
- Discounts: You can save 5%-15% on moving if you are a senior citizen.
We understand you have sentimental and monetary values attached with your piano and wish you luck with its relocation.
