Piano Movers in Toronto

Moving Co. moves pianos across Toronto and the GTA at a flat rate, from $250 for an upright on ground level up to $1,500 for a concert grand with difficult stairs. We run more than 30 piano moves a month. Every crew carries piano boards, four wheel piano dollies and stair climbers as standard kit, and the instrument is insured before it leaves the room.

Call 905-752-7787 or request a quote. Tell us the type of piano, the floor it is on now and the floor it is going to. That is usually enough for us to price the job on the phone.

What does it cost to move a piano in Toronto?

Piano moves are the one job we do not bill by the hour. Everything else we do runs on the clock, at $149 an hour for two movers and a truck. Pianos are different because almost all of the risk sits inside about twenty minutes of the job, and no customer wants to watch a meter tick while a crew works its way down a stairwell carrying 600 pounds of rosewood.

So we quote pianos flat, before the truck leaves. These are our 2026 rates.

Two things move the number: what the piano weighs, and how hard it is to get out of the building. A 400 pound upright that rolls straight out a front door onto a driveway is the cheapest move we do. The same piano three floors up a Victorian staircase with a turn at the landing is a different job with a different crew size, and the price reflects that.

What pushes a piano quote higher

• Stairs, and specifically turns. A straight run of stairs is manageable. A landing that forces the crew to pivot 600 pounds through ninety degrees is what adds time and people.
• Grand piano disassembly. Legs and the pedal lyre have to come off, the instrument goes onto its side on a piano board, and it all goes back together at the other end.
• Long carries. Some downtown buildings put the loading dock a long way from the unit. Distance from the truck to the door counts.
• Tight doorways and elevators. If a baby grand will not fit an elevator on its board, it goes down the stairs, and that changes the crew.
• Timing restrictions. Buildings that only allow moves in a two hour window sometimes need a larger crew to finish inside it.

How we actually move a piano

The short version: we protect the instrument, get it onto the right equipment, keep it upright and controlled through the route we already walked, and strap it down properly in the truck. The long version is where the difference between a piano crew and a general moving crew shows up.

We walk the route before anything moves

Before the piano is touched, the crew lead walks the full path, from where the instrument stands to where the truck is parked. Doorway widths, the turn at the bottom of the stairs, the lip on the front step, whether the hallway carpet will grip or slide. Most piano damage is not a dropped piano. It is a corner clipping a door frame because nobody measured.

Uprights

The lid and the key cover get locked, and taped shut as a backup if the lock is broken or missing. The whole instrument is wrapped in padded blankets, every face including the back and the bottom. It is tilted just enough to slide a four wheel piano dolly underneath, centred so the weight sits evenly, then strapped to the dolly with ratchet straps rated well above the load.

From there it gets pushed, never pulled, with people steering at the back and guiding at the front. Onto the truck it goes up a proper ramp at a shallow angle, or on a lift gate where we have one, then strapped to the truck wall at multiple points so it cannot shift in transit.

Baby grands and concert grands

Grands come apart. The music desk comes off, then the lid. The instrument is lowered carefully onto its straight side onto a padded piano board, and only then do the three legs and the pedal lyre come off. Everything is wrapped, the piano is strapped to the board, and the board rolls.

Reassembly is where grands get damaged, and it is the part people underestimate. Legs have to be seated and secured correctly with the weight taken properly, or you get stress on the case and a leg that is not carrying load the way it was designed to. That is a learned skill, not something to work out on the day.

Digital pianos, organs and keyboards

Digital pianos and stage keyboards are lighter, but the console and the stand are usually the weakest part, and the electronics do not like being racked. We wrap and carry these as single items rather than treating them as furniture. Church organs and older electric organs are heavier than they look and often need the same handling as an acoustic upright.

Toronto buildings, and why the address changes the job

Toronto housing stock is unusually varied for a single city, and a piano move here is shaped far more by the building than by the piano.

Downtown condo towers

In CityPlace, Liberty Village, the Distillery and along the waterfront, the piano is rarely the hard part. The building is. Most towers require a booked service elevator, a reserved loading dock slot and a certificate of insurance naming the corporation before the crew is allowed past the door. Those windows are often two hours and they are enforced.

We handle the certificate paperwork and we plan around the booked window rather than hoping for the best. If your building needs a COI, tell us when you book and we will have it sent ahead. The same applies to our condo and apartment moves generally.

Victorian semis and walk ups

The Annex, Cabbagetown, Riverdale, Leslieville, Parkdale and Little Italy are full of narrow staircases with a turn partway up and a low ceiling over the landing. This is the single most common reason a Toronto piano quote lands at the higher end of the range. There is nothing wrong with these staircases, they simply need more people and more time.

Old front steps matter too. A worn stone step with a rounded edge is a genuine hazard under a loaded dolly, and it is worth mentioning when you call.

North York, Etobicoke, Scarborough and the suburbs

Bungalows, side splits and back splits usually mean a short carry on flat ground, which is the easiest and cheapest piano move available. The complication in the suburbs tends to be the basement. A finished basement with a half turn at the bottom of the stairs is effectively the same job as a downtown walk up, just in the other direction.

Yorkville and higher value homes

In Yorkville, Forest Hill and Rosedale we see more restored antiques and higher value instruments, where the concern is less about whether the piano survives the trip and more about whether the finish does. Those moves get extra blanket layers, corner protection on the route and a slower pace.

What equipment we bring

Every piano job leaves the yard with the same kit, whether it is a spinet or a concert grand:

• Piano boards, for laying grands on their side safely
• Four wheel piano dollies, which are not the same thing as a furniture dolly and distribute the load properly
• Stair climbers, for controlled descent and ascent rather than a carry
• Heavy padded blankets, enough to cover every face of the instrument
• Ratchet straps rated well above the weight being carried
• Ramps, or a lift gate where the truck has one
• Floor protection, because the floor is what gets damaged when a piano does not

This matters more than it sounds. A general crew improvising with a furniture dolly and three blankets is how uprights end up with cracked legs and how hardwood ends up gouged.

Insurance, and the number most people miss

Standard moving valuation in Canada is often quoted at sixty cents per pound. On a 500 pound piano that is $300 of coverage. If the instrument is worth $10,000, that number is not protection, it is a rounding error.

Our piano moves are fully insured, and the coverage is on the instrument rather than on its shipping weight. If you have an appraisal or a recent insurance valuation for the piano, mention it when you book so the right coverage is attached to the job before moving day rather than after it.

Worth knowing: a cracked soundboard is not repairable in any meaningful sense. You can patch it, but the instrument does not come back. That is the specific outcome insurance is there for and it is the reason we would rather send a larger crew than save an hour.

Do we move pianos on their own, or only as part of a full move?

Either. A piano on its own is a common booking for us, and it is priced as the flat rate above with nothing else attached. If the piano is one item inside a larger household move, the piano is quoted flat and the rest of the move runs on our normal hourly rate, so you see both lines clearly rather than one blended number.

If you are moving a piano alongside a few other heavy or awkward items, our single item and furniture movers page covers how that works. For a full household, see house movers in Toronto.

How to get your piano ready for moving day

There is not much for you to do, which is the point of hiring a crew, but a few things genuinely help:

• Clear the route. Rugs, plant stands, shoe racks and anything on the stairs. The crew will move them, but that is time on a job where the route matters.
• Take everything off and out of the piano. Sheet music, metronomes, framed photos, the contents of the bench.
• Do not tune it first. Tune after the move, not before. See below.
• Say if the piano has history. A previous repair, a loose leg, a castor that has been replaced, a crack you already know about. We would much rather know going in.
• Confirm building rules early. If the destination needs an elevator booking or a COI, that is the thing most likely to delay a move, not the piano.

Will my piano need tuning after the move?

Almost certainly, yes, and that is normal rather than a sign something went wrong. Pianos go out of tune from the change in environment as much as from the movement. A piano is a wooden structure under roughly twenty tons of accumulated string tension, and it responds to a new room, new humidity and a new temperature.

The usual advice is to let the instrument settle in its new home for two to four weeks before tuning, so it has acclimatised to the room it is going to live in. Tuning it the next day often means paying for it twice.

Should you move a piano yourself?

Sometimes, honestly. If you are moving a small upright under 400 pounds, on one level, through wide doorways, with four capable people and the right dolly, it is a real option.

It stops being an option the moment stairs are involved, or the instrument is a grand, or it is an antique, or it was recently restored. At that point the cost of hiring a crew is less than the cost of one mistake, and the failure modes are bad ones: a permanently damaged instrument, a gouged floor, or a back injury that lasts years.

If you want the full technical walkthrough before you decide, we wrote one: how to move a piano, safe or heavy item. It covers the equipment, the technique and the specific points where DIY piano moves go wrong.

How to choose a piano mover in Toronto

Three questions separate a piano mover from a moving company that will take the job:

1. What insurance covers the instrument specifically? If the answer is sixty cents a pound, keep calling. Ask what happens to a $10,000 piano.
2. What equipment comes as standard? Piano boards, piano dollies and stair climbers should be a yes without hesitation. If they need to check, they are not a piano crew.
3. How many piano moves did you do in the last thirty days? This is the most useful question on the list. Anything above five means real, current practice. We do more than thirty.

It is also worth asking whether the crew on your job is employed by the company or subcontracted. Ours are in house. Nobody is learning on your instrument.

Where we move pianos

We cover Toronto proper and the wider GTA, including North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, York, East York, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Burlington, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa. We also handle longer piano moves out of the city, including cross province and cross Canada, through our long distance moving service.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to move a piano in Toronto?

Between $250 and $1,500 as a flat rate, depending on the instrument and the access. A standard upright on ground level is $250 to $400. A baby grand with stairs is $650 to $900. A concert grand runs $800 to $1,500. We quote the number before the truck leaves, so it does not change on the day.

Do you charge hourly for piano moves?

No. Pianos are the one service we quote flat rather than hourly. Our other moving services are billed at $149 an hour for two movers and a truck, with a one hour minimum, but a piano move is priced as a fixed job.

Can you move a piano up or down stairs?

Yes. Stairs are routine for us and our crews carry stair climbers as standard. Stairs do affect the price, because they change how many people the job needs and how long it takes. A straight run is easier than a staircase with a turn at the landing.

Do you move grand pianos?

Yes, including concert grands. Grands are partially disassembled for transport, the music desk and lid come off, the instrument goes onto a padded piano board on its side, and the legs and pedal lyre are removed. It is reassembled at the destination.

Is my piano insured during the move?

Yes, and the coverage is based on the instrument rather than its weight. Standard sixty cents per pound valuation would only pay about $300 on a 500 pound piano, which is why we do not rely on it. If you have an appraisal, tell us when booking so the correct value is on the job.

Will my piano need to be tuned after moving?

Almost always. It is caused mainly by the change in room, humidity and temperature rather than by the move itself. Wait two to four weeks so the piano settles into its new environment, then have it tuned.

Can you move a piano the same day I call?

Often, yes, depending on the day and the crew schedule. Same day and next day piano moves are common for us. Call 905-752-7787 and we will tell you honestly what is available rather than booking you in and hoping.

Do you move pianos into condo buildings with elevator restrictions?

Yes, and it is a large part of what we do downtown. We work inside booked service elevator windows and loading dock slots, and we provide the certificate of insurance your building needs. Let us know the building requirements when you book so the paperwork is sent ahead of the move.

What if my piano does not fit through the door?

This is rarer than people fear. Uprights almost always come out the way they went in. For grands, the instrument on its side on a board has a much smaller profile than it looks like standing up. We confirm the route during the walkthrough before anything is lifted, and if there is a genuine problem we will tell you before we start rather than halfway through.

Do you move digital pianos and organs?

Yes. Digital pianos, stage keyboards and organs are handled as single items rather than as furniture. They are lighter than acoustics but the stands and consoles are fragile and the electronics do not tolerate rough handling.

Book a piano move

Tell us the piano type, the floor it is on, the floor it is going to, and your preferred date. We will give you a flat number on the call.

Call 905-752-7787 or request a quote online.