Moving a Piano, Antiques and Valuables: Your Questions Answered

Most of a house move fits in a box. The piano, the inlaid sideboard that came down through the family and the mirror over the fireplace do not, and those are the items people ring us about first. Here are the questions we get asked most about moving heavy, fragile and valuable pieces, answered by the crew who carry them across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Can a normal removal company move a piano, or do I need a piano specialist?

We move pianos ourselves, as part of our specialist removals work, using the same in-house crew who handle the rest of your move. What changes is the kit rather than the people: piano dollies, slings, heavy padding and proper strapping in the van. We have taken baby grands off Gold Hill in Shaftesbury and moved pianos out of listed period homes in Sherborne and Salisbury. The one thing that matters is that we know about the piano before the day, because the right kit has to already be on the van when the crew arrives.

How do you move an upright piano?

Two crew as a minimum, a piano dolly underneath, protective padding right round it and strapping in the van against a bulkhead so it cannot travel loose. We keep the tilt to whatever the doorway and the stairs actually demand, and no more than that. The cast-iron frame inside a piano is the heaviest part of the instrument and it can shift, so an upright stays as close to upright as the route allows.

Is moving a grand piano a different job?

Yes. A grand takes four crew, a specialist skid board and professional-grade padding, and the legs usually come off before it moves anywhere. Taking the legs off sounds drastic. With the right tools it is roughly a twenty minute job, and it turns an awkward shape into something four people can control on a skid board through doorways and round stair turns. It goes back together at the other end.

How much does it cost to move a piano?

That depends on the instrument and the route rather than on a standard rate: upright or grand, which floor it starts and finishes on, the stairs and turns at both ends, how close a van can park, and whether it travels on its own or as part of a full house move. We would rather look at yours than guess at it. Tell us what you have and you get a fixed written quote within the hour, with the piano priced into the job from the start instead of appearing as a surcharge on the day.

Will my piano need tuning after the move?

Ask your tuner rather than us, because we are movers, not piano technicians. What we can tell you is what our customers usually do: they let the instrument settle into the temperature and humidity of its new room for a while before booking the tuner, rather than calling one out the same week it arrives.

How do you protect antique furniture?

Veneered pieces are wrapped individually in cotton blankets, never in plastic. Plastic traps moisture against the surface, and moisture is what lifts a veneer. Marquetry and inlay get corner guards on every edge and nothing taped to the finish. Castors sometimes come off for the journey and sometimes stay on, which is a judgement about the individual piece rather than a rule we apply to everything. Where something needs bespoke wrapping before it travels, that sits with our packing service.

What about mirrors, framed art and sculpture?

Framed art behind glass gets bubble wrap over the glass and travels standing upright in the van, never flat with anything resting on it. Unframed canvases need rigid protection front and back so nothing presses on the painted surface. Mirrors over a metre go into mirror boxes or a rigid wooden crate rather than blankets alone. Heavy stone and sculpture are the exception to wrapping altogether: those get a crate built around them, and a crate builder needs a day's notice, which is the main reason to mention a piece like that at quote stage. There is more detail in our notes on pianos, antiques and one-off pieces.

Are valuable items covered by your insurance?

Goods-in-transit cover up to £50,000 per load comes as standard on every job, included rather than billed as an extra, and £2.5m of public liability sits behind it. If a single load is worth more than that standard figure we can arrange increased cover, and the insurer needs fourteen days' notice to put it in place. That is the practical reason to tell us what your pieces are worth early rather than in the week of the move. We go through how the cover works in our removals insurance questions.

What do you need to know when I ask for a quote?

Dimensions, rough weight if you know it, and the quirks: the piano on the first floor, the sideboard that will not come apart, the mirror that is wider than the front door. Access counts as much as the item, so tell us about narrow lanes, stair turns and where a van can pull up at both ends. On anything significant we will come and look before quoting, free of charge, because a survey is the surest way to get the number right. Underestimating a specialist piece is the one thing that genuinely costs money, since a crew arriving without the right kit means a second visit. Flag it up front and it is simply part of the quote. Get a fixed written quote within the hour.