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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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take the piano action out of the piano and move it separately

piqué, does this advice hold for long distance moves as well? Do piano movers regularly do this?

I don't know. I don't believe piano movers regularly do this. Instead they lock the action down inside the piano using a rail.

I did it doing a local move--the piano technician put the action in the back of his car, wrapped in moving blankets, and drove it to the house, while the movers moved the piano in their truck.

The reason I did this was that Marc Wienert had only recently spent a week tuning and regulating it every day, and I didn't want to lose the result he created. It worked.

I think it was the local tech's idea.

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The reason I did this was that Marc Wienert had only recently spent a week tuning and regulating it every day, and I didn't want to lose the result he created. It worked.

OMG I can imagine!

On a longer move, I would worry about having the action out, and actually think the action would be safer inside the piano...

Okay, I'm duly terrified about the risk, cost, and hassle of moving it upstairs. There is a room for it downstairs, but it's also a room we were trying to reserve as a guest room for people with mobility problems.

It's the lower right room, labeled Guest Bedroom 2. I think the need for a downstairs bedroom can be circumvented by putting the piano against the front wall window, leaving space in the rear of the room for a Murphy bed. (The porch will shade the piano from sun, the radiator is at least a few feet away, and we're installing fancy windows that should moderate heat transfer. It's not an ideal spot, but there are worse options.)

The only other furniture would be seating that would be easy to move out when guests came.

The room is smaller than the one on the second floor, but it's what's available. I particularly don't want the piano in the living room, because I am tired of trying to keep our cherished cats off of (and out of) it.

I'll put down a carpet and hang drapes for a little sound control. Opening the door to the stair hall will do interesting things to the sound on those occasions when it won't make Quirt nuts to have a big ole piano reverberating through a big ole house. I'm kinda interested in whether I'll be able to tell a difference in the acoustics in a masonry house with old growth wood throughout.

Seems like a sound plan.

The plan is for my office to be on the third floor. I will probably be less likely to hear it if it’s on the first floor.

MA, if you can avoid having to move the piano up those stairs, I would say it's worth it to figure out a work-around for guest sleeping space etc.

Good luck!!

I don’t have any specific expertise, but it’s been my experience that if you want a piano moved to a certain place and are willing to pay for it there are movers who can make that happen.

There are any number of machines that can help. Maybe you crane in through a window. Maybe you remove a section of wall. Maybe the crew can figure out how to get it in without any drama at all. It’s all possible, it just depends on how much you want to spend.

Call around. If there’s a dollar in it someone will figure it out.

IMO a 7’4” piano going up a flight of stairs with a turn at the top just sounds scary. That’s a big piano.

But movers know more than I do. They got my 9 foot piano into the front door at the top of the stairs on a narrow landing with a 90 degree turn.