Piano moving a grand endeavor
By Bryan McKenzie  / Daily Progress staff writer                  

March 14, 2005

The Baldwin grand piano stands on
its side in the back of the little blue pickup as two puny humans lift it, stick a square dolly beneath it and carefully coax it down a loading ramp to the driveway of a Scottsville estate.

Richard Harris and Randolph Fisher are a well-oiled, often-drilled, two-man moving machine when performing a task that has been the punchline of sight gags from TV sitcoms to Bugs Bunny cartoons. They've lifted pianos with cranes, taken them in through second-floor balconies and meandered them up the steps of the University of Virginia's Cabell Hall.

They speak in short sentences, sometimes one word. They communicate quickly and accurately lest the crushing weight of a $20,000 instrument of music and potential mayhem come crashing down upon them.

"Not good," Fisher says of that thought.

"Painful," agrees Harris.

Harris, 28, and Fisher, 21, are contract employees with Charlottesville Piano on Rio Road, which buys, sells, repairs, rebuilds and moves classic and antique pianos, specializing in Steinways. The company's Tom Shaw repairs pianos from the inside out, soundboard to finish, and the firm's reputation is good enough that business comes from surrounding states as well as Virginia.

"You've got to have good people who know what they're doing and these guys work well together," Shaw said when the piano was loaded for the Scottsville trip. "There's a lot of work in those instruments and you need people you can trust."

Fisher and Harris may be in Maryland one day and Scottsville the next. They may have a few days off between moves to work at other occupations - Harris runs a cabinet shop in Charlottesville with his father and Fisher attends college part-time - and they never know what they're getting in for.

"Every job is different," Harris says. "Trying to move grand pianos up the steps at Cabell Hall was tough. We once had a square grand piano that weighed a measured ton and no matter what kind of leverage you use on it, that's a heavy piano."

The job is all about leverage. With the legs and the pedals removed, the piano is placed on a special skid. It's square at one end, with a handle against which the piano is placed flush. The other end of the skid extends beyond the piano and is upswept. That allows the movers to lift the piano and to let the skid ride up and over bumps along the way.

It's about to get the test in Scottsville. With a simple "OK" Fisher lowers the skid, balancing the 900 pounds of finely tuned wood, wire and metal on the 2-foot-square dolly.

"Let's go," Fisher says, and the pair pull and push the piano out of the truck onto a ramp. They push and pull it to the driveway. There the upswept end slides along the pavement until the dolly wheels meet the ground.

Carefully the movers bounce the black beauty over the driveway. They hurdle a 3-inch-deep, 6-inch-wide gap between pavement and brick walkway, using the piano's weight to lift the dolly's wheels one set at a time and move toward the front door where a series of porch steps awaits.

Not all pianos are created equal in size or weight. Upright pianos and spinets are significantly lighter and designed with doors and stairs in mind.

"Uprights you can just pick up and put the dolly under it and off you go," Harris says. "Grands, however, are not much fun. They're big and heavy and that says it all."

This Baldwin-brand grand is no different. Fisher and Harris push and pull the piano up the porch steps, using the ramp, and wheel it into the house. They hang a left turn and push it into its new home. Fisher lifts the skid and Harris removes the dolly.

Grand pianos traditionally have three legs. To get this grand on the ground, they put on two of the legs, making sure they're on right and tight and then they lower the piano off the skid until the two legs touch the ground.

With Harris steadying the musical monster, Fisher lifts the piano onto the two legs, his body acting as the third. Harris walks around and attaches the other leg. Then they muscle it into place, pack up their moving equipment of dolly, skid, straps and blankets and reload the truck.

"My mother taught piano for years and my dad repairs them so it's sort of natural that I'd be involved with pianos," Fisher says. "You get used to the physical part. If you know the technique it's not too bad, but heavy is still heavy."

"My dad and I refinish the pianos [for Charlottesville Piano] so I get tired of seeing them after awhile," Harris admits. "As for the moving part of it, moving pianos is a good part-time job. As long as you're in shape."

Contact Bryan McKenzie at (434) 978-7271 or bmckenzie@dailyprogress.com.

© 2005 Media General