Does Lewis charge by the hour, or as one flat Delaware rate?
Both are on the table, and the call is yours. An hourly local job in any of the three counties begins at $140 for two movers, gear and truck folded in, rises to $190 once a third mover joins, and sits at $250 for a four-person team. Prefer one number that does not move? After we see your inventory and how each end loads, we lock a flat figure that holds even if traffic on I-95 by Wilmington drags or the day runs past plan. Pianos are quoted on a line of their own, and any move leaving the state is set as a single binding total before the first box is touched.
When do I need to call Spencer, and how is my Delaware date secured?
Four things get us there: your origin, your destination, the size of the home or the instrument, and the day you are targeting. Drop them into the form on this page or call (888) 711-4778. The price follows quickly, and the moment you sign off, the slot is held in your name. Demand runs hottest on weekends, at the start and close of each month, and across the summer as University of Delaware leases roll over and SR-1 packs with shore traffic, so give us roughly two weeks of lead time for those dates if you can.
Is a deposit required to reserve a Lewis move?
Most local jobs across New Castle, Kent, and Sussex take nothing up front; we hold your date and you settle up after we finish. The exceptions are a move out of state or a high-value grand that needs a crate built, both of which call for a small deposit to reserve the truck and the right crew, and that deposit comes straight off the binding total. Either way, the number is on paper in front of you before you commit.
Will Lewis provide a Certificate of Insurance for my Wilmington high-rise or Newark student building?
We do it all the time. Plenty of downtown Wilmington towers, the newer builds around Brandywine Hundred and Pike Creek, and a good number of Newark landlords renting near the University of Delaware ask for one on file ahead of the move. Send over your building's requirements plus a contact for the property manager, and the office issues the certificate and books whatever dock or elevator window your day needs. There is no charge for it.
How does Lewis cover my piano and belongings, and what does a claim look like in Delaware?
The company is fully licensed in Delaware and carries $1M in cargo coverage. Basic released value of $0.60 per pound applies to every job by default, and you can upgrade to full-value protection, generally 1 to 3 percent of the value you declare, the option best worth choosing for a concert grand. Claims go directly through our Newark office to a Delaware-licensed carrier, never a broker, and you have nine months to file.
Does Spencer's crew do the packing, or is that on me?
However you want to divide it works for us. We can pack the whole house, take only the rooms that worry you most, often the kitchen, the breakables, electronics, and art, or step back entirely while you box things yourself with supplies you buy. Whatever our hands wrap travels under the same coverage as the rest of the load, and the heavy and delicate pieces, your grand above all, are padded, skidded, and crated by the piano crew rather than handed back to you.
My Delaware closing dates do not line up, so where do my things and my piano stay in between?
They wait with us, in a climate-controlled Delaware facility the company owns and runs, which counts for a lot in a Mid-Atlantic climate where summer humidity and a winter nor'easter both go after wood, soundboards, and canvas. The monthly cost lands between $110 and $270 depending on unit size, and it is written into your estimate next to the move. If your sale closes before your purchase, your belongings stay stable and locked up here until you call for delivery.
Can Lewis move a baby grand down a Greenville estate driveway or a console up a Wilmington rowhome stair?
This is the work the company was founded to do. Spinets, consoles, uprights, baby grands, concert grands, player pianos, and church organs each get paired with the proper skids, the proper straps, and the right number of hands, and Spencer often takes the lead himself on a chateau-country grand. Tell us the instrument and what stands in its path, a porch, a tight Trolley Square turn, a sanctuary doorway in Dover, and the piano crew shows up prepared. As a rough guide, plan on $300 to $480 for an upright, $540 to $880 for a baby grand, $800 to $1,400 for a full concert grand off a chateau-country estate, and $380 to $700 for a church organ.
Are Lewis out-of-state moves run by your own crew the whole way?
Completely, the same crew and the same trucks for the entire run. We have regular lanes from Delaware to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, New York, Virginia Beach, and Boston, plus coast-to-coast relocations and shore runs down SR-1. Your load and your piano are never posted to a load board or signed over to another carrier; one Lewis crew stays with them from pickup to delivery, the truck GPS-tracked the whole way.
Does a long carry, a flight of stairs, or a chateau-country grand cost extra?
We fold all of that into the walk-through up front, so the final bill holds no surprises. Flag the access while we are quoting, a third-floor walk-up near campus, a long pull down a Greenville drive, a turn at the head of a rowhome stair, the elevator window you have reserved, and it is already baked into the figure you approved.
Which payment methods does Lewis take?
Every major credit card and debit card goes through, and for bigger interstate jobs or a high-value grand we can set up other terms if you need them. You receive an itemized quote in writing before the move and a receipt after it wraps, so nothing about the paperwork is left murky.
What if a nor'easter or beach-traffic snarl forces me to reschedule my Delaware move?
Plans shift, and ice on the Brandywine roads or a jammed SR-1 toward Rehoboth can do it on their own. For local moves, changing or canceling carries no penalty as long as you give us reasonable notice. Once a truck and crew are locked in for a run across state lines, we ask for a few days' warning, and every one of those terms sits in writing right beside your quote, nothing buried.
Are the Lewis movers really your own people, or is the Delaware work farmed out?
Every one of them is ours: salaried, screened, full-time W-2 employees Spencer trained, behind the wheel of trucks the company owns. No broker sits in the middle, no subcontractor takes a slice, no day labor gets scooped off a parking lot somewhere, and no matching app is involved. The same hands that skid your grand in Greenville are the hands that set it down at the other end.
Is Lewis a moving company, or a service that connects me with one?
Yes, we are the moving company. Lewis Piano Movers is licensed and insured in Delaware, with our own trucks and our own W-2 piano crew, founded by Spencer Lewis in 2011 after years spent tuning and delivering instruments for a Wilmington piano dealer. There is nobody we connect you to, nothing we broker, and no point where the instrument changes hands. The crew you book is the crew that does the job, from your Delaware doorstep to your destination. Call (888) 711-4778 and we will go through it together.