- (267) 367-6610
- [email protected]
- 916 Clinton St, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
Some pianos will not travel through the front door, and on a block of narrow rowhouses there is no side yard to work from. A crane lift over the roof line is often the only practical way to get an upright or a grand into an upper floor. We plan the lift, protect the instrument, and handle the paperwork so the move stays predictable.
A roof-access move is a rigging job before it is a hauling job, so the planning happens well before the truck arrives.
For upper-floor deliveries and rowhouse blocks where the stairwell will not take the instrument.
We rig over the roof line and lower the piano into place with the building protected.
Standard local moves for uprights and grands, including short-notice requests when a closing date or a sale moves faster than expected.
Padded, strapped, and transported level.
Out-of-state moves and relocations of older or historic instruments, including buildings where permits and landmark rules apply.
We plan the route and the paperwork together.
Piano moves are the kind of job people only think about when they are already under pressure, so we hear a lot about how the day actually went.
Here is what customers have told us.
What stuck with me was how carefully they padded the corners and the lid before anything moved, and they kept the instrument level the whole way up.
You could tell the finish mattered to them as much as it did to me.
I have already sent two neighbors their way, one with an upright and one with a baby grand.
Both had the same narrow stairwell problem I did, and both got the same straight answers I got.
Halfway through, they found the stairwell landing was too tight for the turn and had to switch to a lift over the roof instead.
Nobody panicked, they just re-rigged and finished the job the same afternoon.
We had a settlement date and the piano had to be out before the walkthrough.
They scheduled the lift around the building’s rules and had it done with time to spare.
Piano moving is a small trade and a demanding one, and most of what we know came from jobs that were harder than they looked on paper.
We have handled everything from a straightforward upright move to rigging over a roof because there was no other way in.
A customer should expect a clear assessment, a crew that treats the instrument as the fragile thing it is, and an honest answer about whether a crane is necessary or just convenient.
Skip the form. Call now for a free on-site quote from a real estimator. We answer the phone.
CALL (267) 367-6610We have moved pianos here for 15 years, and most of that work happens in housing stock that was never designed for a 500 pound instrument.
The median owner-occupied home in this city was built in 1949, which means tight stairwells, narrow doorways, and turns that a piano simply will not take.
Only about 8% of the 730,630 housing units on record went up since 2000, so the newer, wider layouts are the exception rather than the rule.
Weather adds its own risk here: the heaviest recent hail year around the area was 2023, with 264 radar hail signatures inside a 15-mile radius, and that kind of storm can catch an exposed instrument mid-lift.
Hail activity is uneven year to year, 2023 logged 264 radar signatures while 2022 logged only 51, a 5.2x spread, so we watch the forecast closely before scheduling any outdoor rigging.
Looking at the two halves of 2021 to 2025 around the area, radar hail signatures went from 238 to 205, a fall of 14%, which is directionally reassuring but no reason to skip the forecast check.
When a stairwell will not work, we rig a crane lift over the roof line instead of forcing the instrument through a space it does not fit.
Homeowners often describe being told a piano could not be delivered at all, which is usually a rigging problem rather than a real dead end.
For buildings with landmark protections or shared entryways, see how we handle permit and landmark requirements before you book a date. The page that covers this work in detail is click here.
Our crews work across these 46 ZIP codes.
