A wandering soul

People who own grand pianos sometimes make mistakes when moving to new properties with their instruments. Below are some of the common errors that these individuals make.

Dismantling their piano on their own instead of having the piano removalist do it for them

Because grand pianos are a lot larger than their upright counterparts, it is often necessary to partially dismantle them prior to moving them, in order to make them easier to hold and to ensure that they fit into the moving van and in any hallways that they need to be carried through. This dismantling process usually involves the removal of the piano's legs and its lyre post.

One error that owners of grand pianos make is trying to dismantle their instrument before the piano removalist comes to pick it up and take it to the new house, instead of having the removalist perform this task. They usually make this mistake because they want to ensure that their instrument is ready to be moved as soon as the piano removalist comes to collect it so that this professional can then transport it to the new property as quickly and easily as possible.

Dismantling this type of instrument without help is very likely to end in disaster. In order to accomplish this without damaging the piano, the person doing this task needs to use several tools, including a hydraulic jack (to stop the main body of the piano from collapsing onto the floor when the legs are taken off) as well as a rubber mallet (to gently knock the legs out of their locked positions). Piano removalists will normally have these tools in their vans at all times.

If the owner of a grand piano doesn't have these tools and attempts to improvise by, for example, propping up the piano with a small stool and using a normal hammer instead of a rubber mallet, not only could the piano fall and sustain damage (if the stool breaks under its weight), but the hammer could chip the piano legs when they use it to remove them. This may then result in them having to get the piano components sent off for repairs after they have been delivered to the new house.

Not giving the removalist the keys to the ground-floor windows of the new property

The other very common blunder made by those in this situation is not giving their piano removalist the keys to the windows on the ground floor of their new property. This is a mistake for the following reason; due to how big they are, grand pianos will sometimes not fit through standard-sized doors. As a result of this, in some cases, a piano removalist may need to pass their customer's instrument through the ground-floor windows of that person's new home (if the windows are bigger than the doors).

However, if this situation occurs and the removalist doesn't have the keys to unlock the windows, they may have to sit and wait for the owner to drive to the building before they can begin moving the piano indoors. This could cause problems if the removalist has other customers that have arranged to use their services later that day. If the owner takes too long to arrive, the removalist might have to drop the piano off at an alternative address of the owner's choosing and then transport it to their new home on a different day.