Not every piano we're called out to has reached the end of its life. Now and then one deserves rescuing rather than scrapping — and this grand piano, stranded in a derelict house in North Yorkshire, was exactly that kind of job.
Grand piano rescue · North YorkshireA house stripped back to the shell
The call came from a lady who had heard a grand piano was about to be lost. A builder had bought a house in North Yorkshire and taken it right back to a shell — walls, floors, the lot stripped out. The only thing left in place was the carpet the piano stood on, and even that was buried under plaster and builders' rubble.
The piano itself had seen better days. Years in a house that was now half-demolished had left it in poor condition — but, importantly, it was saveable. It just needed someone willing to take it on before the skip did.
“Will you help me save it?”
That's exactly what the lady asked us. She didn't want the instrument to end up scrapped, and wondered whether we'd be prepared to move it out of the building site it now sat in and bring it to her home. For us, that's the best kind of phone call to get.
Getting a grand out of a gutted house is not a straightforward lift. With the property back to bare brick there was rubble underfoot, no fixtures to work around and none of the usual protection you'd have in a lived-in home. We wrapped and skidded the piano as we always do, picked our route through the debris, and brought it out without adding a single new mark to an instrument that had already been through enough.
From building site to pride of place
The piano's new home could not have been more of a contrast — a very large, beautiful house where it was given pride of place. Once it was settled in, it was gently cleaned up and restored, the plaster dust and years of neglect lifted away, and it looked the part once more.
It's a job that sums up why we do this. We're piano movers and, when the time comes, we handle responsible piano disposal and recycling too — but we'd always rather see a good instrument played than scrapped. If a piano can be saved, we'll do our best to save it.
Thinking of saving a piano yourself?
If you've come across an instrument that's worth rescuing — whether it's headed for a skip, stuck in a house sale, or simply needs moving somewhere it'll be looked after — we can help. We move pianos across the whole county, from York and the North Yorkshire dales to every corner of West and South Yorkshire.
And if you're on the other side of it — hoping to give a good second-hand piano a new home rather than buy new — it's always worth asking us what we've come across lately.