Piano movers in Yorkville, IL

How piano moving works with Yorkville Movers

A piano move with Yorkville Movers is planned as its own job: an estimator looks at the piano and the route, then an Amenity Moving & Storage crew arrives with piano equipment and handles it from the room it sits in to the spot you pick in the new house. Amenity has run its moving and storage business since 1986 and dispatches crews from its warehouse at 10028 Mandel St in Plainfield, roughly 10 miles east of downtown Yorkville.

Amenity names the gear it brings for pianos: a piano dolly or skid board, pads, moving blankets, bubble wrap, heavy-duty lifting straps, tie-down straps and packing tape. Grands and baby grands are disassembled as needed. On local moves Amenity puts one customer per truck, so your piano never shares a load with another household’s furniture.

The Piano Technicians Guild’s basic care rules say to use only a professional piano mover, to avoid injury to yourself, the instrument and your home. Most of the risk sits in the few feet where the piano changes direction or level: the front stoop, a landing turn, the basement stair.

Crews handle piano moves across Kendall County and the Fox Valley, including Oswego, Sugar Grove, North Aurora and Plainfield, home of Amenity’s warehouse.

Pianos and organs Amenity moves

Amenity moves every common home piano, from grands and baby grands to studio uprights, consoles and spinets, plus home organs and antique pump organs. The table shows how much size and weight vary, using manufacturers’ published figures.

Grand and baby grand piano moving

Grands are the job most owners worry about. Steinway’s current grands run from 579 lb at 5 feet 1 inch to 802 lb at 6 feet 11 inches, and they travel through doors on their side. The grand and baby grand piano moving page covers disassembly, boarding, door clearances and setup in detail.

Upright, spinet and console moving

Vertical pianos are shorter but heavy for their footprint: Kawai lists its 44½-inch 508 console at 424 lb, and Steinway lists the 52-inch K-52 at 650 lb. The upright, spinet and console moving page explains stairs, tight landings and how crews keep a top-heavy piano stable.

Organ and pump organ moving

In Amenity’s words, “We move organs and pump organs as well.” Home organs come with benches, pedalboards and sometimes separate speaker cabinets, and antique pump organs have bellows and foot treadles that need protecting. See organ and pump organ moving.

Piano storage

When a closing date and a move-in date don’t line up, Amenity can keep the piano in a fully gated, climate-controlled facility with security-system monitoring, and the piano is raised while in storage. The piano storage page explains how it works.

Why a piano needs more than a furniture crew

A piano needs specialist handling because its weight is concentrated in a cast-iron plate, its shape doesn’t fit a standard dolly, and the parts that make it sound right, from the soundboard to the action, don’t tolerate jolts or tipping.

Amenity’s own example shows why the route matters as much as the muscle. The crew was moving a 6.5-foot Steinway grand from a basement in Joliet to Naperville. The basement stair ran 15 steps straight up, and several treads were broken, so the piano couldn’t go up the stairs. The crew took it out through the back sliding door instead and brought it up a slippery hill to the truck without dropping or damaging it.

For scale, Steinway lists its 6′ 2″ Model A at 720 lb and its 6′ 11″ Model B at 802 lb, so a grand that length weighs somewhere between the two. A load like that has to be planned before anyone lifts: which door, which end leads, and who holds the straps on the slope.

Getting your home and piano ready

Getting ready for a piano move mostly means giving the estimator accurate information and giving the crew a clear, safe path. Amenity asks for the piano’s dimensions, its weight if you know it, and every staircase on the route, including how many steps and whether they’re inside or outside.

• Write down the piano’s height, width and depth, plus the brand and model if you know them.
• Count every step on the route: front stoop, garage steps, deck stairs, basement stairs and any landing turns.
• Clear the obstacles you feel safe moving, such as side tables, lamps and throw rugs; leave anything heavy for the crew.
• Close the lid and fallboard, and take sheet music, photos and plants off the top.
• Measure the spot in the new home and check how close it sits to heating vents, windows and outside doors.
• Keep pets and young children in another room while the piano is moving.
• Shovel and salt outdoor steps and walks on winter moves; Amenity lays floor runners inside.

Tell the estimator about anything unusual: a piano in a finished basement, a split-level half-flight, a deck between the patio door and the driveway, or an unfinished walk at a new-construction home. Reading what happens at an in-home moving estimate beforehand helps you get the most out of the visit.

Climate, tuning and the first weeks after the move

Plan to tune the piano after the move, but not right away. Amenity suggests giving a piano a few weeks to adjust to its new environment, because changes in humidity and temperature affect its tuning and sound.

The Piano Technicians Guild’s care FAQs say climate change is the main cause of pitch change once a piano has settled, and that extreme swings from dry to wet can eventually crack wood and loosen glue joints. Steinway & Sons recommends a room at 40–60% relative humidity and 68–78°F, with tunings at least every six months (Steinway service and maintenance).

A northern Illinois house makes steady humidity hard. The PTG’s humidity guidance notes that in most areas relative humidity runs very low in the cold season and very high in spring and summer, the same swing a Yorkville home goes through between January furnace weather and a muggy July. A hygrometer in the piano room shows what the instrument is living with; if it’s going into a lower-level family room, watch the readings before you book the tuner.

Where to put the piano in the new house

• Choose an interior wall if the house isn’t well insulated; PTG prefers it to an outside wall.
• Keep the piano out of direct sunlight, which ages the finish and fades the color.
• Keep it away from heating registers, air-conditioning vents, fireplaces and frequently opened doors.
• Keep plants and drinks off the piano, since spills and condensation can do major damage.

What affects the time and cost of a piano move

The time and cost of a piano move come down to the piano’s size and weight, the stairs and access at both ends, how much disassembly it needs, the distance, and whether it travels alone or with a household. Yorkville Movers doesn’t publish piano prices, because two pianos of the same size can be very different jobs.

Illinois rules shape how the bill is built. According to the Illinois Commerce Commission’s consumer guide for household moves, moves within Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties, or under 50 miles, may be billed by workers and hours, while longer moves are priced by shipment weight and distance. Your written estimate states which applies.

If you want to keep a piano move affordable, the honest levers are simple: move it with the rest of the house, clear the path before the crew arrives, have measurements ready, and be flexible on the date. Skipping the specialist isn’t one of them, since a dropped piano, a gouged hardwood floor or a strained back costs more than the move. The guide to how moving costs work in Yorkville explains estimates in more depth.

Coverage, long-distance moves and storage

Amenity covers a piano up to the limits of its standard moving policy and offers additional coverage for the piano, so bring up the instrument’s value at your estimate.

Valuation is not insurance. On interstate moves, federal rules describe released value as liability of no more than 60 cents per pound per article (49 CFR Part 375, Appendix A), far below what most pianos are worth. Full value protection works differently: the mover repairs the piano, replaces it with one of like kind and quality, or pays the cost to do so.

Out-of-state piano moves travel with your household under the authority of Wheaton Van Lines, for which Amenity is an authorized agent; long-distance moving explains the inventory, loading and protection plans. Closer to home, the piano usually rides on the same truck as the rest of your local move, and if you need time between houses, the rest of your belongings can go into moving and storage alongside it.

Piano Moving services

Grand & Baby Grand Piano MovingLegs and lyre removed, piano boarded on its sideLearn more →Upright, Spinet & Console MovingVertical pianos up and down stairsLearn more →Organ & Pump Organ MovingHome organs and antique pump organsLearn more →Piano StorageClimate-controlled warehouse storage for pianosLearn more →

Where we provide piano moving

• Yorkville
• Oswego
• Sugar Grove
• Plainfield
• North Aurora
• Montgomery
• Plano
• Big Rock
• Sandwich
• Aurora
• Newark

Related moving services

Gun Safe MovingGun safes and heavy safes, roughly 300 to 2,000 lbLearn more →Hot Tub & Spa MovingHot tubs, spas and swim spas moved, stored or removedLearn more →Senior Moving & DownsizingMoves to smaller homes, senior living and family homesLearn more →

Last reviewed November 11, 2026 by the Yorkville Movers team against Amenity Moving & Storage’s published service details and the public sources listed above.