Piano Movers in Portsmouth, NH | Smart Move

Treat a piano the way you would a bookshelf and you wind up with a pulled muscle and an instrument that has lost its voice. Two things make it tricky, the sheer heft and where that heft rests: an upright weighs 300 to 500 pounds, a baby grand lands at 500 to 600, a concert grand tops a thousand, and every ounce loads onto the components a careless hold is most likely to ruin. Smart Move runs as a full-service Seacoast company, not a dedicated piano outfit, yet a piano sits squarely among the pieces we are set up to move the right way, using boards, dollies, and load-rated straps that put leverage to work in place of raw strength. For years Cole and his crew have walked uprights out of South End rowhouses and wheeled grands into Rye parlors, so a piano traveling alongside your home or as your only item still draws the equipment and the manpower it honestly takes.

Every piano gets its own fixed quote, pinned down before a single lift. A typical upright runs $330 to $500 and a baby grand $580 to $880 for a same-floor move with everyday access, with the board, the quilted padding, and the strapping all built in. A grand cannot pass a doorway intact, so it lays over onto its long edge against a cushioned skid, the pedals and the lyre come off, the legs come away one by one as the crew supports the weight, and each removed part rides wrapped next to the body. An upright rides upright atop its board, walked through every doorway by people who feel which way 400 pounds means to tip. Stairs raise the quote, and on a cramped downtown street with a tight entry and no driveway we secure the curb so the truck waits at the door, every line of it priced on paper beforehand.

What happens with the piano on move day

Usually the piano is just one item among many. You are changing addresses, so the upright by the window goes on the truck with the couch and the bedroom suite, all of it wrapped and cushioned by the same crew working the rest of your home. Because the pedal assembly, the lyre, the legs, and the soundboard are both the dearest and the most fragile parts, we plot and measure the route before laying a finger on it, lay floor protection the length of it, and cushion the door jambs. Our $1M cargo coverage rides on the instrument exactly as it does on everything else aboard, and after it reaches its new spot it should settle two to four weeks before a tuner restores its pitch.

The pianos and specialty pieces our crew moves

• Standard, console, spinet, and studio uprights, walked over the thresholds upright on the board
• Baby grands and concert grands, partly taken down and laid on a skid for the carry
• The piano riding with a full household move, or coming out as a lone piece on its own trip
• Other heavy, unwieldy items, a loaded safe, a slate billiard table, an oversized antique, by request

Relocating an entire household, piano and all? Our local moving crew handles the lot. Shipping the instrument past a state line? It rides on our own authority, spelled out on the long-distance moving page. Get a free quote and we will respond within one business hour.

What’s Included

• A fixed quote per piano pinned beforehand: a $330-$500 upright, a $580-$880 baby grand
• Boards, skids, and dollies load-rated far past the weight, never a furniture crew's plain hands
• A grand laid on its long edge, pedals and lyre off, the legs taken away one by one, each part wrapped
• An upright kept upright atop its board through each doorway by people who feel the weight
• Thick quilting and strapping so the soundboard and pin block clear the trip without a shock
• The route plotted and measured first, floor protection laid down, the door jambs cushioned
• The piano riding with your full household move, or coming out on its own trip
• Up to $1M in cargo coverage on the instrument, identical to the rest aboard