The mileage is the part owners fixate on, though it seldom does the damage. Two other things do: how many sets of hands touch the piano, and how far the air around it lurches between heat and cold. Put an instrument with a general van line and it gets stacked on a shared trailer, swapped at a terminal, and left to weather whatever the next driver’s route throws at the soundboard. That is not how we ship a piano. Whoever eases your grand onto the skid board here in Watertown is also behind the wheel for every mile and at the far door for the carry inside, and your instrument travels by itself in a padded truck built to hold its climate, never wedged beside someone else’s couch.
Every credential this work demands is ours to hold: a Massachusetts DPU household-goods carrier license, our own USDOT and MC authority for crossing state lines, and $1M in cargo coverage that stays attached to the piano from the moment it leaves until it is set in the new room. Responsibility for it begins and ends with our crew and passes to no one else. Since a piano dreads an abrupt shift in heat or humidity more than it dreads the road, a grand is taken down correctly, its legs, lyre, and pedals removed and wrapped, then the body padded and braced so a journey of several days never lets the soundboard or pin block absorb a blow.
Trips like these usually carry a New England piano toward a grown child, a fresh teaching post, or a vacation house: a baby grand leaving Cambridge for a New York brownstone, a console going from a Maine farmhouse to a Connecticut college town, a grand bound from Brookline up into Vermont. The price is a per-piano base figure plus the miles, set down for your specific trip ahead of loading, and whoever is driving keeps a phone open for you to check on the instrument’s progress whenever you like. On arrival the body is positioned, the legs and lyre go back into place, and the piano wants its usual two to four weeks to settle before a technician brings it to pitch.
Routes our piano trucks cover from Watertown
- Throughout New England: into Connecticut and Rhode Island, north to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine via I-91, I-93, and I-95
- Along I-95 past Hartford and New Haven toward the greater New York area
- Westbound on the Mass Pike and I-84 in the direction of Albany and the Hudson Valley
- Farther single-instrument runs reaching the Mid-Atlantic and the coast, priced trip by trip
Shipping it a long way or overseas and want it boxed properly? Pair it with our piano crating and packing for a true skid crate. Want the full rundown on how each instrument is prepped and carried? See our main piano moving page. Whenever it suits you, request your quote and we will respond within one business hour.
What’s Included
- Every mile run on our own DPU license with USDOT and MC authority, never resold or handed off
- One piano crew loading in Watertown, covering the distance, and setting the instrument in its room
- A per-piano base plus the miles, written down for your trip ahead of loading day
- A grand taken down for travel: legs, lyre, and pedals removed and wrapped, the body braced
- A padded truck that holds its climate, so the soundboard and pin block weather New England swings
- An open phone line to whoever is driving, for as long as the trip lasts
- Our $1M cargo coverage, from $0.60/lb released value to a full-value protection option, with a 9-month claim window
- The legs and lyre reset at the far end and a tuner arranged once the piano has settled
What Does It Cost?
A flat long-distance piano price, locked in with a binding written quote
No weight games and nothing new owed at the door — the written per-piano price is the whole price.
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