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Hello Everyone,
Is it possible to easily move a Grand Piano on Carpet that has coasters under its "feet"? I just bought an Estonia Grand 190 (880 pounds) and I'm wondering if I should place coasters under its feet when it arrives. I know that coasters will help prevent the carpet from being crushed but won't adding coasters negate my future ability to "roll" the piano into another position?
Thanks
Climber

You cannot move the piano with coasters underneath the casters.

Climber :

In a word : impossible!

You would never be able to roll an Estonia 190 on a carpet. One push firm enough to move it in any direction and with its weight making the wheels dig into the carpet and you'll probably break off one or more of the legs. The only way to move a piano of that size and weight on a carpet is to have two people lift it so that two legs are off the floor and then the third leg serves as a pivot. But, for heaven's sake, once the piano is in place (casters cups or not) don't try to move it by pushing it!

Regards,

No Bruce, untrue. I move my 7' Bösendorfer around on the carpet every week to vacuum. It's not that hard.

curry :

Well, then I stand corrected, and may be it depends on the carpeting.

Why do you need to move your piano to vacuum, by the way? Your vacuum won't pass under the piano?

I certainly wouldn't begin to even think of moving mine. However, mine is on deep pile carpeting with thick underpadding which, in my case, makes mine totally immovable. Certainly when the piano movers put it into place they were careful not to try to push it across the carpeting but did just as I described to get it to the position I ultimately wanted it.

Regards,

B, the spine is against the wall. I need to move it out from the wall about two feet to vacuum. I won't vacuum under it, because it's only one slip and scratch city.
I had my Baldwin SF-10 on wall to wall carpet. I moved it a couple times a year when I wanted a change of scenery. It's not that hard to do. You just turn the casters in the direction you want to go, and push.

If you have a thick carpet on top of a thick pad you can forget agout rolling it without helpers. With an area rug on a hard floor it can be rolled but even then I would want helpers to align the casters and ease the weight.

Thanks for bringing up the topic. I had the movers place my new Schimmel 189 with the keyboard in an alcove and the rest of the paino in the room and now feel clostrophobic and want to move it to a differnt location. The dealer came with the movers to supervise the delivery and advised that even though the Shimmel's have a 3/4 inch steel rod going from the bottom to top of the leg, he told me I need to have three people lifting the piano on a carpet if I want to move it. I still have been wondering if that is really necessary.

I guess the question is how risk-averse are you? And does the magnitude of the potential downside (broken piano) outweigh the magnitude of the hassle involved in getting two husky friends to help you move it? I know how I'd answer that question, but then again I'm quite risk averse.

I've been meaning to post this very topic. Just 2 weeks ago, after the movers put on the legs, I asked them to move it a bit to get it placed right. Two of them both gently lifted and then moved it. I remember thinking that I'm glad it's in a position where I'll never have to move it to vacuum or clean. Mine too is on carpet (not deep pile but a Berber with padding underneath). Even after 2 weeks, the impressions from the castors are no worse than those created by any of my other furniture. Moreover, I'd be more concerned with possibly throwing the piano out of tune from moving it than anything else. Either way, my piano is staying put until I move to bigger digs so I can eventually get a larger piano.

My 7' Schimmel sits on an area rug. Before that I had a 7' Samick on the same rug.
Both have fairly wide caster wheels, but are pretty big, heavy pianos.
I've moved the pianos occasionally (by myself) to reposition them in the room (I have to move it completey off the rug to move the rug first).
Frankly, it doesn't take much more than leaning against it to move it. If that were going break the legs, I sure wouldn't want to have Michelle Pfeiffer climbing around on it like she does!