270 kg grand piano without a lift from the 1st floor

The call was short. In a flat in the ninth district there is an old grand piano, and it has to go. Not sold, not moved, simply gone. We hear that often. A grand piano with Viennese action, the old design as it was built in Vienna until the early 20th century, is a beautiful heirloom for many families, but at some point it stands in the way. Someone moves, someone sells the flat, someone has died. What is left is an instrument of 270 kilos that nobody plays any more. The customer had two questions, and you would probably have them too: is a grand piano without a lift possible at all, one and a half floors up? And what does it cost? I said what I always say: send me photos.

The photos came by WhatsApp: the grand piano from the front and from the side, the flat door, the stairwell from above and from below, the landing, the front door. I do not need more. A Viennese old building usually has wide stone steps, a banister that can take something, and a landing where you can turn. That was exactly the case here. The grand piano was 170 centimetres long, that is a small grand, and at around 270 kilos a normal weight for this design. So I decided: no stair climber, no ramp, two men with a grand piano board and straps. And I will tell you honestly when that does not work: on a narrow spiral staircase, on three or four floors without a lift, or with a concert grand of over 400 kilos. Then the machine comes, and in the worst case the crane through the window. Not here. The customer had his fixed price the same day.

On the day itself there were two of us. First the grand piano is put on its side in the flat: legs off, lyre off, lid secured, then you carefully tip it onto the grand piano board, a padded board with straps on which the grand lies on its edge and can be pushed. Two tension straps over it, tight, but not so tight that the case suffers. That took 15 minutes in the flat. Then the stairs. One above, one below, both with carrying straps over the shoulders, so that the weight does not hang in the arms but in the back and in the legs. Step by step, turned at the landing, further down. Seven, eight minutes for one and a half floors. No surprise, no graze on the wall, no scratch on the banister. Not because we were lucky, but because we had seen everything on the photos beforehand.

Downstairs the long corridor with the old tiles, then the heavy iron door, then the street and the van. The grand piano is pushed into the van on the board and lashed down once more there. The customer stood in the doorway and watched. He did not have to carry anything, organise anything or call anyone. Less than half an hour after we had come in, the room was empty. The grand piano was then disposed of properly, that is part of the price with us.