Member carriers · Piano Moving
Piano movers, and why the coverage question matters more than the price
A piano is the job that exposes an under-equipped crew: wrong gear, wrong coverage, expensive ending. Piano members are vetted on the standard plus real instrument experience, and their insurance disclosure matters more here than anywhere: 60 cents per pound would not come close on a grand.
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Before you compare quotes
Why a piano is not just heavy furniture
A piano concentrates several hundred to well over a thousand pounds onto three legs or a narrow base, and the case that holds all of it is decorative wood under tension. The job is rigging rather than lifting. An upright goes onto a piano board, strapped upright and tipped onto a dolly. A grand has its lyre and legs removed, the case laid on its side onto a padded skid board, then wrapped and strapped before it moves an inch.
The building is the other half of the work. A quarter-turn at the bottom of a staircase, a doorway an inch narrower than the case, a porch step with no ramp, a lift that is a hand's width too short — these are the moments where an under-equipped crew starts improvising, and improvising is where instruments and door frames get destroyed. A crew that asks detailed questions about your stairs and doorways before quoting is a crew that has been caught out before and learned from it.
Tuning is a separate matter and worth stating plainly: essentially any move will put a piano out of tune, because the instrument responds to movement and to a change in humidity and temperature. That is normal and not evidence of a bad crew. Structural damage — a cracked soundboard, a broken leg, a damaged case — is an entirely different conversation.
What a competent piano move includes
- A piano board or skid board sized to the instrument, with straps rated for it
- Leg and lyre removal and refitting on a grand, done by the crew, not by you
- Ramps and stair equipment appropriate to the access, brought on the day
- Full wrap and corner protection for the case, and protection for your floors and frames
- Placement in the destination room, not just delivery through the door
- A tuning recommendation, and a sensible interval to wait before booking it
Licensing & authority
Same authority as any mover — different insurance question
Moving a piano is transporting household goods, so the licensing picture is the ordinary one: state operating authority for an in-state move where the state requires it, and FMCSA registration with household-goods operating authority for anything crossing a state line. There is no piano-mover licence, and any company implying there is a special credential is describing experience, not authority.
What is genuinely different here is valuation. Released value is the free liability level a household-goods carrier must offer, calculated at a fixed rate per pound per article. On an instrument, that arithmetic is brutal: a piano's weight is large in absolute terms but tiny relative to what the instrument is worth, so the free coverage lands somewhere in the low hundreds of dollars against an instrument that may be worth many multiples of it. Released value is not insurance and, for a piano, it is close to no coverage at all.
So the question to press is what the carrier can actually write. Full Value Protection at a declared value, an instrument-specific declared value, or a specialist policy — the options vary by carrier. What should not vary is that the value and the coverage level are written down before the instrument moves. A verbal 'we're fully insured' resolves nothing after a soundboard cracks.
Ordinary operating authority
State household-goods authority in-state, or an active USDOT registration with household-goods authority for an interstate move. Verify it exactly as you would for a whole-home move.
The valuation option, in writing, with a value on it
Released value at a per-pound rate is almost never adequate for an instrument. Ask what declared-value coverage the carrier can write, and at what number.
Equipment the crew will bring
Piano board or skid board, rated straps, ramps and stair gear. A crew planning to bring 'extra guys' instead of equipment is planning to improvise.
Whether the piano work is subcontracted
Full-service movers sometimes buy piano work in. If so, the specialist's own authority and coverage are what matter, so ask for the name.
Anything a carrier tells you about its authority is checkable. Federal records are public at FMCSA's SAFER database, and the Union runs the same check as part of the published 5-point standard. We publish what we verified; you should still confirm it before you book.
How the money works
How piano work is priced
Piano moving is normally a flat price per instrument, banded by type — upright and console at one level, baby grand and grand at another, with larger concert instruments quoted individually. It is not usually billed by the hour, and it is usually quoted separately even when it happens as part of a whole-home move, because the equipment and crew skill involved are different from the rest of the job.
The surcharges are where the number moves, and they are all access-related: flights of stairs, a turn too tight to carry through, a long carry from the truck, no ramp at the entry, a lift that will not take the case. Every one of them is knowable in advance, which is why a carrier that quotes without asking about your access has not really quoted.
Storage of an instrument, if it is needed, is its own conversation — climate control is not optional for a piano in a humid or freezing market.
This site's cost band describes a full-service local household move, which is a different job billed a different way, so showing it here would mislead rather than inform. Piano work is quoted per instrument against your specific access. For a whole-home estimate that includes an instrument, use the sibling estimate tool.
Where to price this
Moving Union does not quote moves. For a cost estimate, the sibling estimate tool runs the numbers.
Take this to the phone call
What to ask a piano crew
1.What is the flat price for my instrument type, and what triggers a surcharge?
Piano work is banded by instrument and adjusted for access. Both halves should be stated before you book, not discovered on the day.
2.What coverage can you write on the instrument, and at what value?
The free per-pound valuation is nowhere near a piano's worth. This is the question that decides whether a bad outcome is recoverable.
3.Do you use a piano board or skid board, and will you remove the legs and lyre?
It is the difference between a rigging job and four people carrying something they should not be carrying.
4.Have you moved this instrument type on stairs like mine?
Send photographs of the staircase, the turn and the doorway. A crew that engages with them has done this; a crew that waves them off has not.
5.Do you perform the piano work yourselves, or subcontract it?
If it is subcontracted, the specialist's authority, equipment and coverage are the ones that matter. Get the name.
6.How long should I wait before tuning?
A crew that answers this fluently works on instruments regularly. A crew that has never been asked usually shows it.
A longer, move-agnostic version of this list lives in 12 questions to ask before hiring movers.
Walk away signals
What should stop you
- A price quoted without asking the instrument type, the stairs or the doorway widths
- 'We'll bring extra guys' offered in place of naming the equipment
- No mention of valuation, or 'we're fully insured' with no number attached
- A general household hourly rate applied to a grand piano
- A crew arriving without a board, straps or ramps and improvising with blankets
Piano Moving questions
The parts people get wrong
Why is a piano quoted separately from the rest of my move?
Because it is a different job. It needs specific equipment, a crew trained to rig rather than carry, and a separate assessment of your access. Bundling it into an hourly household rate usually means one of two things: the carrier has not thought about it, or it intends to raise the price once the crew sees the instrument.
Is the free per-pound valuation enough coverage for a piano?
Almost never. Released value pays a fixed rate per pound per article, and a piano's weight is small compared with its value, so the payout lands far below what the instrument is worth. If the piano matters to you, ask what declared-value coverage the carrier can write and get the value in writing before move day.
Will moving the piano ruin the tuning?
It will change it, and that is expected — instruments respond to movement and to shifts in humidity and temperature. Plan on a tuning after the move, and ask the crew how long to let the instrument settle in its new room first. Tuning drift is normal; a cracked soundboard or a damaged case is not, and that is what the coverage conversation is for.