Piano Removal in Chicopee, MA

A piano is the heaviest thing most people ever try to move out of a house, and the weight is concentrated in a place that makes it dangerous. Inside the case is a cast iron plate under about eighteen tons of accumulated string tension.

An upright runs 400 to 800 pounds depending on height. A spinet is at the light end, a full upright or a player piano at the heavy end. A grand is 500 to 1,200 pounds and has to have its legs and pedal lyre removed and be turned onto its side on a purpose built skid board. Neither is a job for a dolly and enthusiasm.

The reason this matters more than the number suggests is the balance. A piano is top heavy and the mass sits at the back. Tipped even slightly on a staircase it goes over, and it does not stop. This is the junk removal job with the highest genuine injury risk, and it is why it is priced the way it is.

Stairs are the entire cost

A piano on the ground floor with a straight path to the door is a short job. The same piano at the top of a staircase, or in a Springfield triple decker second floor apartment, can be double or more. Ask about the stairs on the first call, because that is the number the quote actually turns on.

Try to give it away first, but be realistic

The used piano market collapsed years ago. Schools, churches and community centers are full of donated uprights they cannot maintain, and most will now say no. A piano that is genuinely in tune and in good condition may find a home. One that has sat in a damp basement in a mill town since the eighties will not, and the tuning cost alone would exceed its value.

Digital pianos and keyboards are a completely different job. They are light, they come apart, and they are handled as electronics. Do not let a quote for an upright get applied to a keyboard.

If it is a genuinely old or unusual instrument, it is worth one look before it goes. Some pre war American uprights have value as parts even when the instrument is finished, and a local piano technician can tell you in five minutes whether you are throwing away something or nothing.

What happens to it

It gets broken down. The cast iron plate is excellent scrap and goes to a metal yard, the strings and hardware go with it, and the wooden case goes to a construction and demolition processor. Massachusetts has banned both metal and wood from landfill disposal, since 1 July 2006, so the split is not optional. Ivory keys on a pre 1970s instrument are worth mentioning, because they carry legal restrictions on sale.