How to Move a Piano, Art, and Things You Cannot Replace

A regular move is about efficiency. A specialty move is about method. Different equipment, slower pace, more people on the item than you think it needs.

Pianos

An upright runs 300 to 800 pounds. A grand can pass 1,200. The weight is the obvious problem and the balance is the real one. Grands come apart: legs and lyre off, the body onto a padded piano board, strapped, then wrapped. Uprights stay assembled but get wrapped, boarded, and moved by at least three people. Casters are for rolling across a room, not for moving a piano.

Fine art and mirrors

• Glazed pieces get a taped X across the glass so a crack does not travel.
• Glassine or acid-free paper touches the surface first. Bubble wrap directly against a painting can mark it.
• Corner protectors, then a mirror carton, then a wooden crate for anything genuinely valuable.
• Everything travels upright and strapped to the wall of the truck. Never flat, never stacked.
• Nothing sits in a hot truck in an LA summer longer than it has to.

Antiques

Old joinery is not built for lifting from the middle. Support antique furniture from its structural base, never by a leg, an arm, or a tabletop edge. Remove drawers and glass shelves, wrap them separately, and pad the whole piece before it moves an inch. Marble tops always travel upright on edge, never flat, because flat is how marble cracks under its own weight.

Safes and gym equipment

A gun safe or a commercial-grade safe needs a machine dolly, straps, and a plan for every threshold and stair. Tell us the weight and the location before the day of the move so we bring the right equipment. Same for treadmills and multi-station gyms, which almost always come apart before they leave the room.

Questions to ask before you book

1. 1Have you moved this specific type of item before?
2. 2What equipment are you bringing for it?
3. 3How many crew members are assigned to it?
4. 4What coverage applies if something happens to it?