Piano Moving

Overview

About This Service

Moving a piano is one of the few situations where hiring the wrong movers is not just a risk to your budget, it is a risk to an instrument that might be worth more than everything else in your home combined. A grand piano can weigh anywhere from 600 to 1,200 pounds. An upright weighs 300 to 500 pounds. A baby grand sits somewhere in between at 500 to 600 pounds. None of them moves like furniture. All of them require trained piano movers in North York who understand the physics, have the right equipment, and know how to think three steps ahead before a single leg comes off the instrument. Fast Track Move moves pianos for homeowners, churches, schools, and recording studios across North York, Toronto, and the broader GTA. We move uprights out of Willowdale bungalows, getting them through the 32-inch front door on a piano board while protecting the original hardwood floor that every 1960s North York bungalow seems to have. We move baby grands down stairways in York Mills estates with curved staircases that make the job look impossible until you see it done correctly. We have navigated baby grand pianos through the freight elevator at condo towers on Doris Avenue and Yonge Street, measuring the elevator cab clearance in advance and confirming the piano fits before the truck even leaves our depot. The equipment we use is specific to the instrument. A piano board, also called a piano skid, is a padded flat board with thick straps that holds the piano body secure during the horizontal carry without putting stress on the legs or internal frame. For uprights, the board attaches to the back of the instrument. For grands and baby grands, the legs come off first, the lid is removed, the pedal lyre is detached, and then the body goes onto the board. A stair climber dolly handles the descent and ascent on staircases with a controlled, motorized grip that prevents the instrument from slipping. Quilted moving blankets with extra interior foam padding wrap the instrument body. Nothing touches the piano except padded surfaces. Toronto winters present a real and underappreciated risk to pianos. Wood is sensitive to temperature change. The soundboard, the bridges, and the pin block inside a piano are all solid wood and all respond to rapid temperature shifts by expanding and contracting. A piano left in an unheated truck for more than 20 minutes on a January morning in North York is being exposed to temperatures that can cause permanent damage to the tuning stability and structural integrity of the instrument. We do not leave pianos in unheated trucks. On cold-weather moves, the instrument is kept in a climate-controlled environment throughout the process. After every piano move, regardless of the distance, the instrument needs time to acclimate to its new environment before it is tuned. We tell every client the same thing: wait 2 to 3 weeks after the move before calling your piano technician for a tuning. The instrument needs to settle at the humidity and temperature of the new room before a tuning can hold. If you tune the day after the move, you will need another tuning in 3 weeks anyway. Patience is part of good piano care. Pricing for piano moves in North York reflects the specialized nature of the work. Because of the weight and the need for spotters and proper equipment, piano moves require a minimum of 3 movers at $230 per hour. The $200 truck fee applies for locations within 25 kilometres of our North York depot. Most upright piano moves complete in 2 to 3 hours. Grand and baby grand moves, particularly those involving staircases or freight elevator coordination, typically run 3 to 5 hours. We provide a firm quote after reviewing the piano type, the origin and destination access points, and any staircase or elevator challenges. For churches and schools across North York that need a concert grand moved between facilities for a performance or event, we offer scheduled piano transport with advance coordination. For recording studios in the downtown core that need a studio piano repositioned or replaced, we are familiar with the tight loading environments and acoustic flooring considerations. Fast Track Move is CVOR-certified, WSIB-covered, and has 926 Google reviews at a 5.0 average rating.