Piano Moving Services in Orlando, FL Boards, Stairs and Weight

Weight and shape decide the equipment, not the room

Published Steinway grand weights run from 540 pounds for the five-foot-one model S through 570 for the M, 610 for the O and L, 695 for the A, 760 for the B and 990 for the concert D. An upright is lighter but worse balanced, carrying most of its mass in the plate and the pinblock at the back. Grands travel on their side on a padded board with the legs and lyre off and the lid strapped; uprights travel upright on a four-wheel dolly with the keyboard face protected and the casters relieved of load. Nothing about that changes because the instrument is only going across town.

A Florida second floor is a 30 or 40 psf assembly

Table R301.5 of the 2023 Florida Residential Code sets minimum uniformly distributed live loads of 40 pounds per square foot for rooms other than sleeping rooms, 30 for sleeping rooms and 30 for habitable attics served by fixed stairs. Those are distributed design values, not a permission slip for a 760-pound point load on four wheels. Orange County's 2000s subdivision stock puts a bonus room over the garage at the top of a single switchback stair, and that stair, its landing and its handrail geometry are what decide whether the instrument can go up at all. Measure the tightest turn, the landing depth and the handrail projection before the date is confirmed.

Humidity is the reason the tuning is gone on arrival

Orlando's summer rainfall normals are 7.35 inches in June, 7.15 in July and 6.25 in August, and the air behaves accordingly. Wood soundboards and bridges take on and give up moisture with it, which moves the crown and the string tension. A piano that goes from a conditioned house into a truck on a wet afternoon and then into a house whose air conditioning has been off during a vacancy is going to need tuning after it settles, typically weeks later rather than the same day. Plan the tuning as a separate appointment and get the destination room's air conditioning running before the instrument arrives.

Getting the truck near the door in a canopy neighborhood

Orlando code section 61.226 requires canopy street trees on both sides of local streets at one per 50 to 100 lineal feet, so on the older grid in College Park and Audubon Park the practical clearance over the parkway is lower than a box truck's roofline. A piano is the one item where a long carry is genuinely worse than a short one, because every additional dolly transition over a driveway lip, a curb cut or a paver joint is another chance to load the caster brackets sideways. Where the truck cannot get close, the answer is a shorter shuttle vehicle, not a longer push.

What Florida lets a mover charge for it

Section 507.01 of the Florida Statutes names hoisting or lowering, long carry, elevator or stair carrying, disassembly or reassembly, crating and waiting time as accessorial services distinct from transportation. A piano move usually triggers several at once, and each should appear as its own line rather than as an unexplained special-handling figure. The same section defines valuation coverage as accessorial too, which is the point to settle before the instrument is on a board: released value in Florida cannot be set below 60 cents per pound per article, and 60 cents against 760 pounds is not a replacement fund for a concert grand.

The route walked before anything is lifted

The crew walks the full path first, both ends: door widths, threshold heights, the turn out of the room, the stair run, the driveway slope, the gate the truck has to clear. In a gated community, ask the association in writing whether a truck of that length uses the resident gate or a service entrance, and whether a certificate of insurance naming the association is required, because either can push the arrival past the morning window you wanted for a heat-sensitive instrument. Then the price is set against the real route: crew size, the number of transitions, board and dolly work, and the tuning you schedule for later.