quote:

jockeying the plywood

Well, I would be the plywood jockey, and there will be nothing else (furniture etc) in the area where the piano will sit while the rug is repositioned, so the piano just has to move forward, and then back in an arc.

Is it not straightforward? 1) move the piano straight off of the rug (the whole piano moves in the direction of the keyboard side). 2) reposition the rug. 3) move the piano back into place, turning it so the tail goes into the corner and the straight side of the piano ends up on the short wall. As the piano gets moved, every so often, Mr. SK lifts a leg and I reposition the plywood, one leg at a time. There will be one person by each leg, and they will sort of lift up on the piano so that when it's rolling, it doesn't have the full weight on the legs.

Mr. SK thinks you are all worrying too much, but maybe that's because he's stronger than most people and maybe doesn't realize that not everyone is as strong as he is.

Ron, what do you think?

And btw, I'm planning on calling my tuner tomorrow, so I'll see what he has to say.

Go Mr. SK!

I made the mistake of showing this to Mr. SK:




He seems to think it’s a good idea...

All you need is two husbands!

Hands and knees is how I lift when putting in castor cups...

My concern was to prevent damage to rug or floors. What you want to do isn't hard. The transitions on and off the plywood can be tricky, but it sounds like MrSK is ready for the challenge! You can always stop and hire in if it looks like things are going sideways!

OK, totally out of the box and probably not going to work but is there a pad under that rug? Because maybe instead of moving the piano off the rug, moving the rug, then moving the piano back on, you could just get a bunch of people around the sides of the rug and kind of turn the entire rug to the direction you want it while the piano stays on the rug? I have moved many large pieces of furniture by putting a painters dropcloth under them then sliding the whole dropcloth across our wood floor --- this would seem to be the same thing on a bigger scale. I don't know if it would rip or stretch the rug though. But it might be worth a thought.

Interesting thought, Lisa! But the piano isn’t going to be in the same position on the rug, I think. It’s toward the end now, and I think it will be more at the center when all is said and done?

We jockeyed with our piano twice. Once to put a round rug under it, to cut down some of the sound in our very lively hardwood/no drapes/leather furniture living room. DH and teen son did that two guys lifting while on hands and knees thing while I unrolled the rug underneath the caster cups, and it worked.

Later I wanted to turn the piano on an angle. My tuner/tech just rotated the whole piano/rug combo by a few degrees. No pad underneath. That worked fine.

But I think SK’s move is more complicated. I’d pay to not have to do that!

quote:

Hands and knees is how I lift when putting in castor cups...

Wow!! so it's not just in the movies!!

Lisa, that was suggested to me by someone else as well, but I think it would damage the rug, esp since it isn't very durable or expensive.

Anyway, I decided to to pay to have the piano movers come over and do it for me. If we had two Mr SKs, that would be fine. Mr. SK knows how to use his body, and I've seen him safely do that kind of stuff through all kinds of house-moves and home projects. But he also works out/lifts weights and knows a lot about how to protect his back, and, importantly, he knows what his own limitations are. I don't think the same is true for most people, and I would feel terrible if one of my friends threw their back out trying to help. I would feel bad if the piano were damaged but at least with a piano you can replace it. Replacing someone's herniated disk? Not so much.

Anyway, it's on the calendar for the 12th!

Oh, Adagio, the other detail (maybe I already wrote that somewhere here?) is that the rug is 8x10, which is pretty big, and then with the rug pad, I think rolling it up would be pretty complicated.

As for the positioning: we will turn the rug actually, it's long-ways now (the long side of the rug is parallel to the long side of the room), but we'll rotate it so that the long side of the rug is parallel to the short side of the room. The rug will mostly fill up that space. And, as I measured it, I think the piano will actually go right back onto the rug where it is now. That leaves enough room for me to move the bench out, with room to spare, on the keyboard side, and to walk around the tail on the other side.

Oh wait, another question. What's the etiquette for tipping this time?? When they moved the piano here, I gave them each a good tip because getting the piano out of the seller's house, around the turns and dealing with the horrible steps, the whole thing was a nightmare.

This is going to be a much easier job, and these guys work for themselves.

No tip ok??

Will there be room for the tuner to pull the action out and work on it?

A lesser tip maybe.

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Will there be room for the tuner to pull the action out and work on it?

Yep, I just double-checked it with him on the phone a little bit ago.

2 guys? $15 each if they do a good job.

Which would bring the total to $180. Hmmm....

For owner/operators of a piano moving business, I don't generally tip. They set the price.

Home movers that work for someone else? Or a large piano moving company that sends out some workers? Those I tip!