Urgent - Moving Concert Grand - Crate or No?
Question:
Now employer is advising that they've checked with Steinway and Sons and recommend AGAINST crating. Don't have all the details yet, but please post your comments here. I'll let you know what happens.
Answer:
The only way I've ever seen people move a piano is to wrap it in thick
blankets and tie it up so the blankets don't move and so it can't get
scratched.
If I were in your shoes I would have one of the mover's that specialize in
piano moving do the move for you. The three of which I am aware are:
1. Keyboard Carriage. Contact Rick Dawson (270) 737-5797
2. Modern Piano Moving. http://modernpiano.com/
3. Schafer Bros. http://www.pianomove.com/
I've heard good and bad things about all three. Keyboard Carriage does not
do door to door delivery. They mostly move pianos for dealers. Both Modern
and Schafer do door to door delivery.
I recently had a piano moved by Keyboard Carriage. Keyboard Carriage was
$500 from the Mira Loma, CA terminal (near LA) to Portland, Oregon. With
the delivery to the Mira Loma, CA terminal and the delivery to my home the
total was $800. Modern and Schafer were each about $1150 for the same trip.
My piano came through the move pretty well. There is a 3mm x 3mm chip on
the fallboard, but it's minor and easily repaired. For whatever it's worth
the piano was blanket wrapped not crated. I personally would not have a
piano crated unless it was going on a plane or a ship overseas. You REALLY
need to know what you're doing to make a crate that will actually protect
the piano, and not make it worse. Of course, if money is not an issue then
maybe it doesn't matter.
I also wonder if the piano was crated if it wouldn't actually get worse
treatment. It's obvious what's under the blankets in a blanket wrapped
grand piano. If it was in a crate I'd worry that some harried loading dock
worker would run a fork lift through your piano. I've seen two piano in
this condition before. During a recent home remodeling debacle (at my home)
the long-awaited carpeting arrive with not one, but two forklift sized holes
in the roll of carpet. That forklift driver must have been doing 80 mph
when he hit the roll. One hole went all the way through!
Schafer Bros seems to have the most horror stories written about them, but
they also have a few avowed fans. The downside of Keyboard Carriage is that
one must arrange for delivery at the sending end to either a Keyboard
Carriage terminal (Mira Loma, CA and Louisville, KY and perhaps NY), a piano
mover, or a dealer. Same thing at the receiving end. On the other hand you
don't have to make yourself instantaneously available when the truck driver
shows up in town to deliver the piano either.
I think no matter what you do there will be marks on the piano. Mine had a
few marks from the straps that held the blankets. A little 0000 steel wool
and they're gone.
BTW, the local piano mover charged me extra for moving my M&H BB. It took
three men to move it instead of two. I can't even imagine what it would
take to move a M&H model CC. A crane?
In any case there is no way I would ever, under any condition allow a
standard home moving company to move my piano with my household possessions.
A friend of mine made this mistake. It turns out that the movers packed the
barbeque in a box with the ash in it! The ash vibrated out of the box and
all over his piano. The action was never the same. Home movers just don't
pay enough to get the movers that will take care of your possessions.
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