As your Piano Tuner Wilmington DE , one of the more frequent questions I am asked is how to go about moving a piano. This article will give some important information.
Pianos look about the same size as a table or desk that many of us have moved either by ourselves or with the help of friends. Most people imagine that moving a piano would involve about the same amount of effort and expertise as moving these items of furniture. As a result, piano technicians frequently are called on to repair pianos that are damaged by amateur movers, and we hear of broken feet, broken fingers, and permanent back injuries.
The cause of all this is that a piano is not a piece of furniture, even though it might look like one. Pianos have over two hundred strings, each tightened to about 150 pounds of tension. If you multiply 200 by 150, you get 30,000 pound of total tension. If a piano were just a wooden piece of furniture, it would fold up on itself from the tension.
Instead, a piano has a large cast iron plate weighing hundreds of pounds, designed to keep the structure of the piano intact. Cast iron is used, because it flexes very little even under tremendous loads. The disadvantage of cast iron is that it is remarkably heavy.
Moving a piano takes specialized equipment and skill. An object of this much mass tends to keep rolling in whatever direction it is going. For example, many people get injured trying to stop a piano from rolling out of control down a moving ramp from a truck. Many back injuries never completely heal. On the other hand, pianos will tend to roll around in the back of a truck, damaging the instrument.
A typical local piano move will cost $100-200 dollars when done by licensed professionals. It is not worth the risk of injuring yourself or your friends, to try to do it yourself.
Also, if you are selling your piano, we recommend that in the sales agreement you stipulate that only licensed piano movers will be used. You don’t want to risk having an amateur injured on your property.
If you have any other questions regarding pianos, or if you want a referral for a piano mover, please let us know. We are your Piano Tuning Wilmington DE expert. We also provide piano services in Philadelphia, Eastern Shore MD and Southern NJ. We’ll look forward to serving you.
