How much to pay someone for delivering a machine?

[Roger Feeley]

I'm lobbying the bride for a Powermatic 15HH which is around 350lbs or so. Bigger than I want to move down the stairs to my basement. There is this guy that has an ad at the local Woodcraft that will pick stuff up at Woodcraft and put it in my basement. I called him to see about what he would charge and the response has me flummoxed.

He says he will take whatever I think it's worth. He says if I want to pay him a dollar, he would be happy with a dollar. He says he is bonded and insured and stuff.

So I wasn't raised to cheat people.

Assume:
-- the drive from WC to my house is about 25 minutes.
-- two guys
-- an hour to move the machine at my house.

What's fair?

[Sam Murdoch]

2 guys meaning you and him or he's bringing a helper? My 1st thought was no less than $ 200.00. Could be as much as $ 300.00.
If you are the helper, $ 150.00. I can imagine a company charging twice as much.

[Mike Kreinhop]

I recently moved a lot of equipment down my stairs to the basement workshop with the help of two other people. While this is not something I care to do again, I was prepared to pay a professional mover to do this before my workmates offered to help.

According to the online manual, the 15HH weighs 502 pounds. Will your stairs take the load of the equipment and two or three people? I didn't want to take any chances with my stairs collapsing, so I braced each step from underneath, built a series of graduated wooden platforms to spread the load to four steps during the descent, and disassembled the equipment as much as necessary to lighten the load. I used a manual chain hoist attached to the steps to the second floor to lift and move the equipment to the next lower step, then repositioned the chain hoist to the next step.

[Jerome Stanek]

How much does Woodcraft charge for delivery add to that

[Roger Feeley]

I would be paying two guys. I have bad knees.
exterior concrete stairways
woodcraft doesn’t deliver to your basement. They can arrange shipping to your driveway.
my point about the weight is that it is beyond my capabilities. I need help.

[Dennis Peacock]

$200-300 seems to be reasonable to be, but depending on location and difficulty of work, it could be well worth more.

[Roger Feeley]

Thanks to all.
i was thinking along the lines of 2-300.

[Matt Day]

$200 sounds about right. A 15” planer is a quick and easy move for two able people.

[Mike Cutler]

That seems like a good number to me.
I had a 500lb wood stove delivered to the house once. I had brought everything I thought I would need to get it down the stairs and into the basement.
The guys, 2, showed up. One big guy, one little skinny guy. The big guy picked up the wood stove, Quadrafire 5700, minus the bricks and front door, and carried it down the stairs. The skinny guy was the setup man. They were done installing the stove in about 10 minutes.
I tipped them about the same amount and this was 15 years ago.

[Wade Lippman]

5 years ago I paid 4 guys $225 to move 4 large machines from my garage around to my walk out basement. They were professionals.

In your situation I would ask him for a price. If he refuses to give you one, I would pay him the dollar he wants. I don't like games.

[Mike Heidrick]

A local in town moving co here would charge $80 an hour starting from when the leave their business till they leave your house.

[Roger Feeley]

Thanks as always. I got a call from woodcraft in Springfield, VA that my 15hh is in. I’m going with $200.
i love my wife.

[Alan Caro]

Roger Feeley,

I once helped a furniture maker friend*** move from Los Angeles to Hawaii and the equipment moving was very simple- drive a forklift around the shop and place the enormous equipment on industrial pallets. He had a bandsaw from a shipyard- WWII era (Rackwitz?): 5HP and a 20 or 24" throat, wood lathes, a very large planer.

***Tom Braverman made several items for houses I designed. This house in Brentwood had a tower (it was the guest house) with gates:

Moyer Res_front_entry gate.jpg

That house also had a dining table that was 13' X 4' with a 3" thick top and that was a single piece of walnut with 150 fillet inlays. Tom used to go to Oregon, select trees, have them milled and then air-dried the pieces I think 7 or 8 years.

My own experience moving a very large object has been in moving my piano:

Kawai KG5C_whole R.jpg

Which is 6'8" and close to 900 lbs. Ten years ago that cost $150. This included collecting it from my house and moving it to a house that was 150' from the street and had a total of 33 steps.

My thought is to handle the Powermatic 15HH in the way pianos are, which is to move it securely strapped on a wheeled pallet on it's side and then on stairs to put it on a long pallet /sled. The wheeled pallet has two casters and allows navigation around corners. The good feature of the long sled is that it distributes the weight over 6 or 8 steps and one person lets it down on ropes and another guides it.

The 15HH is smaller and lighter than a grand piano. Perhaps a piano mover would do it.

Alan Caro