Buying a Piano and Getting tt Home

Pianos are one of the few things where the transport cost regularly exceeds the purchase price. That is why so many are advertised free, and why buying one requires a bit more thought than the price suggests.

Just-tn-Time Moving is locally owned and works throughout Washington and Washington County.

Get it looked at before you commit

The most important step and the one most often skipped on a free instrument.

Age tells you little. What matters is whether the soundboard is sound, whether it holds a tune, whether the action works evenly across the keyboard and whether the pin block still grips the tuning pins.

A piano that cannot hold a tune needs work that frequently exceeds what the instrument is worth, and you will have paid to move it first.

A technician's visit costs a fraction of the move and it is the best money in this process. For a free piano especially, since the seller has no incentive to tell you.

Ask the seller the right questions

Make and model, which gives the weight. Which floor it is on and whether there are stairs. Whether a vehicle can get close. When it was last tuned and by whom. Whether it has been in an unconditioned space such as a garage.

Ask for photographs of the instrument, inside the lid, and the route out. A piano at the bottom of a turned basement staircase can cost more to extract than anything you would pay for it.

Check the destination before the origin

People plan the collection and not the arrival.

Measure the route into your house: the doorway, the turn, the staircase and the headroom above it. Decide the exact position before the day, on an interior wall in a consistently conditioned room, away from vents and direct sun.

Over a crawl space or upstairs, think about the floor. Several hundred pounds on three points against a load-bearing wall is preferable to mid-span.

Budget for the whole thing

The move, a tuning two to four weeks afterwards once it has settled, and possibly a second tuning if the instrument has been neglected or has changed climate.

Add any regulation work the technician recommends. A free piano is rarely free and is frequently still good value once you know the number.

Send us photographs of both ends and we will quote it.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.