Shipping a piano from Poland to the U.S.

My wife has a very nice piano in Poland. We're interested in shipping it to the U.S. Does anyone have experience with shipping a large item from Poland to the U.S.? Is Domu Shipping a good place to start? I assume we'll be looking for some square footage in a container. Any advice is appreciated.

What kind of piano is it? You can try them:

discount-shipping.net/imports/air_rates.cfm

POLAND
$22.00 - 20 kilo
$18.00 - 35 kilo
$17.00 - 45 kilo
$390 per cubic meter 4 CBM+=$350 per cubic meter

It's a Casilia, which are made in Poland. They are generally not available in the U.S. These are 100% hand-made, which is something a lot of piano makers can't claim.

can't help with specifics as we've only moved *into* Poland. However, my piano (a Chappell upright) has been across the Atlantic and back. Generally speaking it survived the experience.

1. what's the finish?
mine is french polished, and after it had been through Panama it was marked in places - the packers had placed other boxes on top and even though everything was well wrapped, the effect of pressure+heat certainly left some marks.

2. make sure it's well secured. I've found removal men generally unprepared for the weight (and instability) of an upright with a full iron frame.

This will probably make things a little more difficult if you are hiring *space* in an already near-filled container. Not any old space will do - and from my experience the space left over for the by-the-metre people is exactly that - the last few metres on the way out.

Don't let the removal guys browbeat you and pretend they know best - maybe they do, but it's too big a risk to take for them to just shove it in and close the doors quickly...

[fwiw we also made sure that some sturdy (packed) boxs were put in front - tucked in under the keyboard.]

/c

Calisia (Latin for Kalisz). Incidentally, the pianos they exported to Finland were badged Sonata because Calisia had a humorous connotation (the Finnish word fro underwear).

Need it tuned? I charge $30.00 in the Toledo area.

There is a company in Bydgoszcz by the name saprenovation.com . This folks restore high end pianos from all over the world. I would highly recomment to use them if you really care about your instrument.

Regards,
bergen101

Try: polamercargo.com/kontenery-do-polski-cennik

I shipped some large packages from the U.S. to Poland with them, and it worked flawlessly. Perhaps they ship from Poland to the U.S. too, and you can rent a whole container? This is an option I have been considering for some time, because I too have an upright piano that I want to ship from Poland to the US. This is a 'Legnica', and I am willing to pay for renting a container because of the sentimental value of the instrument. Besides, it is also very well made (compared to these $4,000 mass produced Yamahas). If you rent the whole container, you can package the instrument well and be reasonably certain that it is going to arrive in good shape.

Or maybe you would like to share a container? This may be hard to arrange, but we can ask Polamer.