Uprights and Grands Are Different Jobs

People asking for a quote often say simply that they have a piano, which is reasonable and tells us less than they think. The two families of instrument present different problems and need different equipment.

Just-In-Time Moving moves both across West Valley City and Salt Lake County. Here is what actually separates them.

Uprights: top-heavy and deceptive

An upright stays assembled. It goes on a piano dolly, secured, and travels upright.

The difficulty is the weight distribution. The iron plate, strings and action sit high and toward the back, so the centre of gravity is well above the middle. It wants to tip backwards, and it does so quickly and without much warning.

Weights run from around three hundred pounds for a small spinet to eight hundred for an older upright grand, and the tall Victorian instruments people inherit are frequently at the heavy end while looking no larger.

Stairs are where uprights are genuinely dangerous, because a tipping instrument on a staircase cannot be recovered.

Grands: dismantled, then carried on their side

A grand is not moved as it stands. The lid is closed and secured, the lyre with the pedals is removed, then the piano is lowered onto its bass side onto a padded piano board and strapped to it.

The legs come off once the weight is on the board, in a specific order, since removing a leg from a piano still standing on it is how a grand ends up on the floor.

The whole assembly then travels on the board. This is why a grand needs a proper crew and specific equipment rather than more people.

Baby grands begin around five hundred pounds; concert instruments exceed a thousand.

What this means for your quote

Tell us which it is and, if you can, the make and model. That gives us weight and dimensions accurately rather than approximately, and it determines crew size and equipment.

Digital pianos are a third category and are usually straightforward, though the better weighted-action instruments are heavier than they look and the stands rarely take handling.

What both need

A route measured beforehand rather than tested on the day. Protection on floors and doorframes. Nobody pushing. And tuning afterwards, once the instrument has settled.

Send photographs including the room and the route out, and we will tell you what the job needs. The estimate is free and in writing.

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