Piano Movers in Dubai

Uprights, baby grands and grands are three different jobs

The problem with a piano is not total weight, it is where the weight sits. An upright carries most of its mass high and towards the back, in the iron frame and the strings, so it will tip backwards long before it tips forward. That is why an upright is walked on a board and held by straps rather than by four people gripping the case.

A baby grand or a grand comes apart before it travels. The lid is closed and secured, the pedal lyre is taken off, the legs are removed, and the instrument is lowered onto a padded board so it travels on its side with the straight edge of the case carrying the weight. The hardware goes into a labelled bag that stays with the piano, and the legs and lyre are refitted and the piano levelled once it is in position.

A full grand is not simply a longer baby grand. The case is longer, it needs a bigger board and more hands on the turns, and the space it has to pass through has to be measured rather than eyed. Digital pianos and stage keyboards are an easier job, but they still travel wrapped and upright rather than flat in the back of a car.

Measuring before we book, not on the day

Before we take a piano booking we want numbers rather than descriptions. The internal width, depth and door opening of the service lift. The width of every doorway on the route at both ends, measured at the frame. The width of the landing where the stairs turn, because the turn is the problem and the flight almost never is. And any raised threshold or marble step at a villa entrance.

Sometimes the numbers say the route is a few centimetres short. That is normal and it is usually solvable. A door slab can come off its hinges and go back on the same day, and occasionally a window or a balcony panel is taken out instead. What matters is that it is agreed in advance with the owner or building management. Nobody should be unscrewing a door with a piano parked on a landing.

Building rules apply to a piano exactly as they do to furniture. Most towers want a move out or move in permit, book the service lift in fixed slots, and may hold a refundable deposit against damage to the lift and the lobby. Passenger lifts are usually not allowed for goods at all. We apply for the permits, book the slot and pad the lift, and we book further ahead at the end of the month when every service lift in Dubai is busy.

Useful links: Dubai Land Department.

Heat, humidity and the inside of a truck

A piano is mostly wood and glue under tension. The soundboard, the bridges and the case all move with temperature and humidity, and Dubai supplies plenty of both. The practical rule is that the instrument should spend as little time as possible in a vehicle and no time at all in a closed truck standing in the sun. We plan piano jobs as a single run and load early in the day through the summer.

Where it ends up in the new home matters as much as the journey. Keep a piano off an outside wall that takes direct sun, away from a window that gets the afternoon heat, and out of the path of an air conditioning vent blowing straight at the case. A stable room is better for the instrument than a good looking corner where the temperature swings all day.

Tuning after a move is normal, and it is not our job. Moving a piano and tuning a piano are two different trades. Let the instrument settle for a couple of weeks in the temperature and humidity of its new room, then call your own piano tuner. Anyone who offers to tune it as they set it down is guessing.

What sets the price of a piano move

Every piano move is quoted on its own, because the route matters as much as the instrument. A baby grand leaving a ground floor villa with a driveway at the door is a completely different job from an upright coming down four floors of a walk up in Al Barsha, even though the upright weighs less.

These are the things we ask about before giving you a figure: