PIANO MOVERS IN CHICAGO

A piano is several hundred pounds of tension, lacquer, and sentiment, and it does not forgive improvisation. Our piano crews move uprights, baby grands, and full grands with skid boards, piano dollies, and door-by-door route planning — down walk-ups, around landings, and into homes across Chicagoland.

Upright and Grand Piano Moves

Uprights travel padded and strapped on piano dollies — the simplest piano move, but still a piano. We wrap them in quilted pads against finish damage, secure the keylid, and roll them with two crew minimum, more on stairs. Grands are partially disassembled: the lid comes off, the lyre and pedals come off, and the legs come off. The body — the part that holds the soundboard and the cast-iron plate — gets wrapped piece by piece and moved on a skid board built for the job. Reassembly happens at the destination after the body is in place. Baby grands sit between the two: smaller than full grands but disassembled similarly.

Stairs, Tight Turns, and Hoisting

Chicago housing tests pianos. Vintage walk-up staircases turn at landings narrower than the piano. Bungalow basements have ceiling heights that quarrel with upright tops. Old North Side three-flats have stairwells that were generous in 1925 and aren't anymore. We measure the route before booking — staircase widths, landing turns, doorway clearances, and ceiling heights — and tell you honestly whether it's a carry, a hoist through a window, or a piece that won't fit through that door — before move day, not during it. When the carry path is impossible, hoisting from a balcony or window solves it.

Tools and Equipment

The right gear matters more on piano moves than on almost any other job. We bring four-wheel piano dollies sized to the instrument, skid boards rated for full grands, piano-specific quilted pads, ratchet straps for securing to the skid, ramp boards for thresholds, and stair-climbing dollies for short flights. For longer flights we use a stairwell with the crew, not the equipment — pianos go down stairs on muscle and method, not gadgets that fail at the worst moment.

Piano Pricing

Piano moves are priced by piano type, stair flights, distance, and whether hoisting is required. A ground-floor upright across town is the low end. A 7-foot grand from a third-floor walk-up to a North Shore living room — disassembly, hoisting, and reassembly included — is the upper end. We quote exactly after a few specific questions about both locations: piano size and brand, floor and stair count at each end, doorway and stairwell measurements if you have them, and the destination's intended placement room. No deposit to book.

Insurance and Liability

Pianos travel under our standard moving insurance, which covers loss and damage during the move. For high-value instruments — concert-grade Steinways, vintage rebuilds, instruments with insurance appraisals above standard valuation — we offer full-value declared coverage as an add-on; bring the appraisal and we'll quote the upgrade. Tuning after a move isn't a guarantee anyone can give you (climate change, vibration, and the new room all affect tuning), so plan on a piano tuner visit a few weeks after settling in.