Beware of any and all “free” pianos, which often need so much work they are actually $-2000 pianos.
You can hire a piano technician to take a look at a piano and assess its condition. It’s a really good idea to do this. A piano that seems hopelessly broken might have a problem that can be fixed in half an hour; a piano that seems OK might have a serious problem that is beyond help.
A technician can tell the difference pretty quickly.
3/ #piano
Never, ever, ever, ever, ever attempt to move a piano yourself. Hire piano movers — not just movers, but •piano• movers. The potential damage to humans and houses is so much larger than the extra cost of hiring the right person for the job, there’s just no comparison.
I don’t care if you did it before and didn’t die. I don’t care if the movers seem really strong though. Don’t.
The Piano Book goes in depth about this with some (true!) horror stories. I’m just surfacing it because it’s such an easy mistake to make, and because “preventable safety hazard!” is one of my favorite genres.
4/ #piano