Piano and gun-safe moving
Round up a few friends to wrestle a piano or a gun safe with a rented dolly and the usual result is a damaged instrument and somebody’s wrenched back. We route these jobs to Eli Sumner, who has spent years working under heavy safes and instruments.
I will bring a baby grand down three flights of a Montford staircase and out the front door of the new place with the case unmarked and the plaster untouched. From the opening lift to the moment it is set in place, only our own crew’s hands touch the straps. — Eli Sumner
Pieces he takes on
If it is heavy and it genuinely matters, it usually ends up on Eli’s schedule: consoles and uprights, baby grands, full concert instruments, the enormous old player pianos, and gun safes, the half-ton-and-heavier kind eased down a turning stairwell or hauled up a steep cabin porch through a tight Asheville doorway.
Safely down a flight, up a porch
- Wrap and shrink Applied first, with the lid, lyre, and legs padded or unbolted depending on the instrument.
- Board and strap The weight settles onto a four-wheel piano board, strapped down, for the level stretches.
- Plot the route A tall historic staircase leaves no margin, so the crew walks every landing before a hand goes on the piece, and a ridge cabin’s upward porch haul gets the same advance scouting.
- Ease it down, tread by tread Brought down a flight one tread at a time, safes on the identical rated rigging, never muscled by hand.
- Level and place At the new home the piece is leveled and set wherever you point.
What it runs
| Piece | Typical flat rate |
|---|---|
| Upright piano | $450 to $700 |
| Baby grand | $800 to $1,300 |
| Gun safe (by weight) | Quoted on weight and stairs |
The stairs are the job
Being honest, it is the stairs that prompt most of these calls. Montford and Grove Park staircases run high and bend hard at the landing, and getting a baby grand down one is work for a mover with a hundred such carries behind him. That mover is Eli, and the route is plotted before a finger touches the keys.
One flat written price
Whether the piano is quoted on its own or folded into the price for the whole relocation is your call. Either way the number reaches you before the truck does, and whoever works the instrument is part of the same crew minding everything else in the home.
