Sydney · 25 years · Pianos only
Piano Movers Sydney From $390
We are piano movers in Sydney and pianos are the only thing we move. Uprights start at $390, pianolas are $550 and grands are $950. Stairs are $20 per step at both ends, quoted from your photos before you book. Every piano is fully wrapped and guaranteed against damage.
Stairs are $20 per step at both ends, and we tell you that number before you book, not on the day.
Moving pianos in Sydney
4,000+
Of pianos moved
No damage
Guaranteed on every move
Trade
We deliver for Sydney piano shops
Moving pianos in Sydney
4,000+
Of pianos moved
No damage
Guaranteed on every move
Trade
We deliver for Sydney piano shops
How Much Does It Cost To Move A Piano In Sydney?
Here is what we charge. These prices cover a move within Sydney with level access at both ends, meaning we can get the van reasonably close and there are no steps between the piano and the door.
Most common
Upright piano
From $390
The standard Sydney move with level access at both ends.
200kg to 300kg · fully wrapped · van with tail lift
Player piano
Pianola
$550
Deeper and heavier than an upright because of the player mechanism.
Older cabinetry · extra wrapping · van with tail lift
Specialist job
Grand & baby grand
$950
Legs, lyre and lid come off and go back on in sequence.
300kg to 500kg plus · skid board · van with tail lift
Most jobs are not quite that simple, which is why the stairs matter more than the base price.
Why A Grand Is $950 And An Upright Is $390
The gap is not a size surcharge. The two jobs are different work.
Upright
From $390
Grand and baby grand
$950
Our promise
No Surprises On The Day
The most common complaint you will read about piano removalists here is not damage. It is price. Someone quotes a figure over the phone, arrives, looks at the stairs, and adds a couple of hundred dollars while the piano is sitting in the hallway.
Step 01
Send us photos
The piano, the hallway, and the stairs at both ends. A phone photo is fine.
Step 02
We quote a fixed price
Worked out from what we can see, not from a guess over the phone.
Step 03
That is the price you pay
No access fee added on the day. If we got it wrong, that is our problem, not yours.
Piano Removals Sydney: What Is In The Price
Every quote covers a van with a tail lift, a piano skid and trolley, full wrapping, the carry at both ends, and placing the piano where you want it in the room rather than leaving it inside the front door. Your piano is guaranteed against damage on the move. GST is included in the figures above.
Stairs, Tight Turns And Difficult Access
Stairs are the single biggest thing that moves a piano quote, and almost nobody in Sydney will tell you what they charge for them. We will.
per step
Counted at both ends
No stairs
$390 base
$390Level access at both ends
5 front steps
$390 + 5 × $20
$490Typical Federation verandah
14 steps
$390 + 14 × $20
$670First floor terrace
30 stairs
$390 + 30 × $20
$990Past the thousand mark with access
Work out your own number before you call. Then send a photo of the stairs at each end and we will confirm it.
Pianos We Have Carried Up Stairs
Not All Stairs Are Equal
Fourteen straight steps with a landing at the top is a normal job.
Fourteen steps that curve, with a turn at the bottom into a narrow hallway, is harder than thirty straight ones. An upright piano is top heavy. It carries most of its weight up high, in the frame and the strings, so the moment you tip it into a turn the load shifts onto one corner. That is where damage happens, to the piano and to your walls.
Spiral staircases, old sandstone steps that have worn unevenly, and steep driveways that leave the van sitting at an angle all fall into the same bucket. None of them are impossible on their own. They need to be planned instead of discovered.
When The Answer Is No
Sometimes a piano cannot be moved safely. A large old upright up a thin, rickety staircase in a terrace is the clearest example. However much someone wants that piano, there is a point where the stairs will not take the weight and nobody should be under it.
We would rather tell you that on the phone than find out halfway up.
We charge for stairs because they change the job, not because we can. On a flat run the piano is on wheels and we are steering. On stairs, the crew is carrying the full weight and controlling it the whole way down.
Service Process
How A Piano Move Works
We’ll be at your current address on time, ready to transport your piano to your new address.
Testimonial
What our Customers say
What Sydney Homes Do To A Piano Move
The suburb matters less than the house. Sydney has four rough types of property and each one creates a different problem.
Terraces in the inner suburbs
Newtown, Glebe, Surry Hills, Paddington, Erskineville. These streets were laid out long before anyone owned a removal van, so there is rarely anywhere to park close and the front door often opens straight onto the footpath. Inside, the hallway is narrow and there is usually a turn just past the entry. This is the access type that takes us the longest, and it is the one we do most.
Apartments and strata buildings
Zetland, Chatswood, Parramatta, Wolli Creek, the CBD. The piano usually fits the lift. The problem is the building. Most strata schemes want the lift booked in advance, want protective padding installed, and want notice given to the building manager. Ask your building manager two things before you book us: when can the lift be reserved, and where can a van legally stop.
Federation homes and bungalows
Haberfield, Ashfield, Strathfield, Concord, Roseville. Level inside, but almost all of them have a set of front steps up to the verandah. That is usually four to six steps, so around $80 to $120. People are often caught out by this because the house feels flat once you are in it.
Newer suburban homes
The Hills, the Shire, the Northern Beaches, Penrith. Driveway parking, wide doors, level entry. These are the straightforward jobs and they pay the base price. We are telling you this because it would be easy to pretend every job is difficult.
Recent work
Jobs We Have Done
Job 01
Up The Stairs At Point Piper
Point Piper is built into a harbour slope, so the front door is often a full storey above or below the street. There is no side entry and no way to bring the van closer.
This one was a straight carry up. One piano, one step at a time, with the weight held the whole way.
Vaucluse, Rose Bay and Darling Point produce the same job. What looks like a ground floor from the road is rarely a ground floor once you are standing at the door.
Job 02
From Ryde To Orange
We do the deliveries for piano shops around Sydney, including Gospel Pianos on Blaxland Road in Ryde. Gospel Pianos has been trading since the 1980s and is the Australian distributor for C. Bechstein and Seiler.
This piano went from their Ryde showroom out to a house in Orange, about four hours west.
A long run changes the job. The piano is strapped in for the whole drive over country roads, through a bigger temperature swing than it would ever see crossing the city. Our van is set up for pianos and carries nothing else, so there is no other load shifting against it on the way.
Job 03
A Pianola In Pyrmont
Pianolas are the next size up from a standard upright. The player mechanism sits inside the case, which makes them deeper and heavier than they look.
In the footage you can see how little room there is at the doorway. It only just fits through.
What surprises people is how manageable it is once the piano is on the skid and moving in a straight line. It is the doorways and the turns that make a pianola harder, not the lifting.
Upright, Grand Or Pianola
Uprights
Between 200kg and 300kg. The panels stay on. Some movers take the front panels off to make the piano lighter to carry. It does make it lighter. It also removes part of what holds the case square, and it is a shortcut that shows up later as a piano that will not hold its tuning.
Grands and baby grands
From around 300kg up past 500kg. Legs, lyre and lid come off in sequence and the body travels on its side on a skid board. The order matters. A grand that has been dismantled by someone guessing usually announces itself when the legs go back on.
Pianolas
Heavier than they look, because of the player mechanism inside the case. Often eighty or a hundred years old, with cabinetry that has dried out. They need more wrapping and gentler handling than a modern upright of the same size.
Digital pianos
We move these too. They are lighter, but the ones with weighted hammer actions still do not like being tipped.
Will My Piano Need Tuning After The Move?
Yes, almost certainly, and that is normal.
A piano holds a great deal of string tension across a cast iron frame inside a wooden case. Wood responds to temperature and humidity. Moving a piano from a closed up house into a van and then into a room with different light and airflow will shift the pitch, even if nothing touches the strings.
Let it sit in the new room for two weeks before you book a tuner. It needs to settle into the new conditions first, otherwise you pay for a tuning that drifts again a fortnight later.
Anyone who tells you your piano will arrive in tune is either guessing or selling.
What If You Do Not Want The Piano Anymore
Ten or twenty pianos are advertised free on Facebook Marketplace across Australia every day. Piano restorer Mike Hendry estimates Australians throw out somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 pianos a year. The reason is usually space rather than sentiment. A room gets needed for something else, and the piano is the largest thing in it.
If that is where you are, you are in ordinary company and you do not need to feel bad about it.
Where We Work
We cover the whole Sydney basin, from the eastern suburbs through the inner west, across the north shore and out to the Hills, Penrith and Campbelltown. The harbour suburbs and the inner west terraces make up most of the difficult jobs. The outer suburbs are usually the straightforward ones.
We are based at 318 Jones Street in Pyrmont, which puts us close to the inner city terraces and apartment buildings where most of the difficult jobs are.
Do You Move Pianos Interstate?
Yes. We move pianos between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the places in between. Interstate moves are priced separately because they depend on distance and scheduling. Interstate piano removal
Outside the city we run regularly to the Central Coast, Newcastle, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Southern Highlands, and further west to places like Orange and Bathurst when a shop delivery takes us there.
About us
25 Years Of Moving Sydney Pianos
Piano Pickup has been moving pianos for 25 years. In that time we have moved more than 4,000 of them, and we have seen most of what a Sydney house can present.
Half the work is private customers moving house. The other half is delivery work for piano shops around Sydney, which means new instruments going out of showrooms and into homes.
Common Questions
Book A Piano Move In Sydney
Send a photo of the piano, the hallway and the stairs at both ends. You get a fixed price back, and that is the price you pay. If you have been calling around piano movers in Sydney and getting quotes with conditions attached, this is the difference.
Sydney · Newcastle · Wollongong · Central Coast · Blue Mountains · Southern Highlands