· Michael Blair
Most household items are a question of weight and boxes. A few are not, and every mover prices them separately because they need different equipment, different training and often a different insurance conversation. Knowing why makes the quote comprehensible rather than annoying.
What makes these items different
Weight concentrated in a small footprint is the first thing. A gun safe can put several hundred pounds onto four small feet, which is enough to punch through a floor over a crawl space or crack a tile floor if it is set down carelessly.
The second is an unstable centre of gravity. A piano carries most of its mass at one end and around the plate, and an upright will go over if it is tipped past a modest angle. Once something that heavy begins to move, nobody is stopping it, and that is where injuries happen rather than in the lifting.
The equipment that actually matters
A piano board and straps for an upright, a proper skid board for a grand, which is dismantled to the extent of removing the legs and lyre and travelling on its side. Stair-climbing dollies and rigging for safes, and enough people to control the load rather than to carry it.
Also floor and door protection, which is not a courtesy. Most of the damage claims on specialty moves are not to the item, they are to the house: a door jamb split, a stair tread gouged, a hardwood floor scarred by a wheel that picked up grit.
- Ask what specific equipment they use, not just whether they can do it
- Confirm how many people will be on the job
- Ask about floor, stair and doorway protection
- Measure the route yourself, including turns and handrails
- Get the specialty item listed on the paperwork by name
The insurance question
Standard released-value coverage on a household move is calculated by weight, which is close to meaningless for a valuable instrument. A piano covered at a per-pound rate will not be made whole if the soundboard cracks, and that is the default coverage unless something else was purchased.
For anything genuinely valuable, ask about full-value protection and whether high-value items need to be declared individually. A separate rider on your own homeowner or renter policy is sometimes cheaper. Either way the time to settle it is before the truck arrives, not after.
Firearms, and the part people get wrong
Movers generally will not transport firearms or ammunition, and most tariffs exclude ammunition outright as a hazardous material. The safe itself is a specialty item they will move; what is inside it usually is not, and it needs to travel with you.
Interstate transport of firearms also involves state law at both ends, which differs. It is worth checking rather than assuming, and it is a genuine reason to plan the safe as an empty object being moved and its contents as a separate task entirely.