[CAUT] Moving Grand Pianos Intra-Department

[Graves, Tony J.]

We also have a moving dept. on campus.  I supervise and take legs and lyre off and on.  I usually know about the moves well in advance and submit the paperwork so I get on their schedule. For those times that I don't know about the move,  since I've built a good working relationship with them, they're happy to work me into the schedule.

Tony


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Tony Graves RPT
Piano Technician
School of Music
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
(765) 285-0053



On 12/5/11 10:02 AM, "Dennis Johnson" <johnsond at stolaf.edu> wrote:

Hi-

We have an agreement with one of the movers from the city, about 30 miles away, but that works since we have such a large moving expense budget.  It's an item of the budget we all dream of cutting back on but that's unlikely to happen until we get a proper large concert hall.  As is, for prominent concerts we are regularly moving pianos back and forth to the chapel or the main gym.  Set up, tear down, storage, piano moving, etc... are all huge consequences of not having a proper hall large enough for the big ensembles.  Our facilities do set up and tear down of the portable stage and move other equip such as raisers, but they do not touch pianos.  I'm ok helping or supervising move of an upright on the dolly or carrying the harpsichord around the building as needed. Generally it's easy to get those who benefit from the move to help so I'm not stuck with it alone.

good luck,

Dennis Johnson
St. Olaf College

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On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 7:44 AM, Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
We have a dept called Moving Services.  These guys have been moving pianos for us for decades.  They are dependable, fast, and know what they're doing.  Also quite inexpensive.  All I have to do is remove the lyre and legs. They do all the grunt work.  So it depends on what knowledge the university staff people have. If no knowledge, then I would call a professional piano mover. Our facilities and maintenance people don't touch the pianos.  For uprights, I and our own building/facilities manager move ourselves.  We will ask a student to place the dolly under the piano when we lift on and off, but that's all the students are allowed to do.

Paul T. Williams RPT
Univ. of Nebraska
Lincoln





From: Zeno Wood <zeno.wood at gmail.com>
To: caut at ptg.org
Date: 12/04/2011 07:13 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Moving Grand Pianos Intra-Department
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I once thought I could save some money, so I asked the facilities guys
to move an upright.  I don't do that anymore.  They didn't take
direction very well and of course they all, individually, knew the
best way, while I was standing there being ignored.  Never again.

If an upright needs to be moved more than a couple of feet, I'll get a
couple of students to help put it on a dolly etc.  For grands, the
college has to hire movers.  Movers are worth every penny. All the
reasons David S cited were right on.  If the piano is damaged, what
happens next?  If a person is damaged, then what?