Category Archives: Furniture assembly

Two Big Days – and all IKEA

Furniture assembly, IKEA Assembly, IKEA Jersey

I’ve just completed a job that took two full days – spread over 3 working days and the weekend – that involved building, joining and installing thirteen separate IKEA Pax wardrobes and fitting out with drawers, shelves, rails, etc, all in a home that’s still being finished.

Being on a building site meant no mains power so I was very grateful for my cordless drill on the final half day. A battery screwdriver speeds things up, too, as long as you’re careful, but there’s no substitute for muscle and effort Continue reading Two Big Days – and all IKEA →

Is DIY Dying?

Furniture assembly, Shed assembly

The news this week that B and Q are closing sixty of their stores in the UK has been put down to a combination of factors:

  1. Young people are less skilled or less confident about DIY than their parents
  2. More people live in rented homes than in the recent past, making them less inclined to spend time and money on home improvements

From my own experience I think there’s a third factor at play, which is that more people who are in a position to spend money on home improvements are happier to pay someone else to do the work for them. Whether this is down to bigger disposable incomes or lower real-term costs, all the signs are that increasingly people on middle incomes and higher (and sometimes lower, too) are in a position to pay a professional.

Of course, it’s not just the affordability that matters, but the convenience, too. Busy lives make time saved more valuable than ever, so that paying for someone else’s time makes sense for more and more people. So perhaps we should add shortage of time to those reasons for DIY’s decline.

Certainly, in the flatpack assembly business, the most common reason I hear for booking my services is the time saved. While some customers might struggle with the physical aspect or making sense of the instructions, the net result is that the job would have taken them too long – or more time than they were prepared to devote to it. Far better to pay me or someone like me.

But whatever your reason for paying someone else to build your flat pack furniture, equipment or garden shed, it’s a perfectly valid one. Just make sure you book a professional who knows what he or she is doing. You can contact me using the form on this page or by email, phone or text.

Roy

IKEA Hemnes Cabinets

Furniture assembly, IKEA Assembly, IKEA Jersey

A recent post on here was written to help you estimate how long a job will take and therefore how much it will cost. Naturally, we’ll always try to give you the most accurate quote we can, and if we say the price is guaranteed, then that’s exactly what we mean.

Some items take longer than you might expect, especially compared with equivalent pieces in more simple or basic ranges, and in IKEA’s vast catalogue, their Hemnes items are a good example of this.

The simple way to estimate our working time still stands – roughly 30 minutes or so per box delivered – but Hemnes furniture often comes in two or three boxes rather than one or two. That’s because there are usually lots of struts and stretchers (horizontal bars) to attach and sometimes end panels need assembling, too. Usually, this means that drawer runners will also need attaching, whereas a simpler cabinet might have these already screwed on.

Packing all the pieces safely for transport means you end up with more boxes than you might expect, but that’s a good guide to the time required to build it.

The eight-drawer Hemnes chest that I give as an example in the recent article is a very good example of this. I’ve done a few of these now, and they take me about ninety minutes. You might allow an hour per box if you build it yourself, or about three hours in total, but that will depend on your skill, patience and possibly physical strength.

The four-piece TV unit that I built last week came in seven boxes, and had to be fixed to the wall, so it took me about four hours. It would probably take an inexperienced person the best part of a day.

How Long Will it Take?

Furniture assembly, Health and Safety, IKEA Assembly, IKEA Jersey, Prices

It is, as you’ll probably guess, an impossible question to answer, at least without a lot of experience (and trial and error), and I still get it wrong sometimes.

Different makes, with their various ranges, are all likely to take a different amount of time to assemble, and each piece within every range is unique. Working conditions can vary, too, and the best thing a customer can do to help is to have the boxes in the right place, with enough space to work in.

But there is one thing I’ve noticed, at least with IKEA and probably with most self-assembly furniture, and it will give you a rough idea. Continue reading How Long Will it Take? →

New Lower Minimum Charge

Furniture assembly, IKEA Assembly, News, Prices

With immediate effect, I’m introducing a new minimum fee of just £20. This will apply for all smaller jobs, up to about 30 minutes’ work, and replaces the minimum one hour rate that applied before (currently £35)

That means smaller jobs are now more affordable. I can do this because few places in Jersey are difficult to get to, so I’m happy to waive my travel time (and expense).

In fact, I can easily cycle to and from most small jobs, which means my costs are minimal, and I want to pass that saving on to you.

As an example, I assembled four IKEA chairs in about half an hour this week, and four simple tables took about the same amount of time. Not many jobs are quite that simple, but a bedside cabinet or basic small bookcase could take about 30 minutes, too.

Another Return Visit

Furniture assembly, Garden furniture, IKEA Assembly, IKEA Jersey

Apart from words of thanks and appreciation, the best way a customer can tell you they’re delighted with your services is to ask for more.

So it was this week, when I returned to a home I visited about six months ago (see Sheds, Beds and Butchers’ Blocks). This time, it was tables and chairs from IKEA, and nothing too complicated, although they were all new to me.

A couple of hours was enough to assemble a garden table and four folding chairs, two high-back chairs and four coffee tables. Not knowing exactly what I would be facing, I estimated up to four hours’ work, but naturally the customer was delighted when I finished in half the time and for fifty pounds less than quoted.

 

What Price a Healthy Back?

Furniture assembly, Health and Safety, Shed assembly

Save the pain, in other words, by contacting Flatpack Jersey.

If you’ve built any flatpack furniture before, or built your own shed, you might remember the blistered hands, bashed thumbs, aching back and skinned knuckles – I certainly do!

But experience and skills acquired over many years mean I keep those things to a minimum. Even better, I keep them to myself!

So, apart from the skill and experience I bring to the job of assembling your flatpack furniture, garden buildings and fitness equipment – saving you time and frustration and giving you the finished result you hoped for – perhaps the biggest benefit of employing Flatpack Jersey is your personal health and safety.

What price would you pay to avoid stitches and a strained back, even assuming your time is free? I’d say a healthy back alone is priceless.

Currently, I charge £35 an hour.

If you’d rather build it yourself, read these tips on health and safety first.

Three Tall Pax Wardrobes and Malm Chests

Furniture assembly, IKEA Assembly, IKEA Jersey

A few wardrobes and chests might not sound like a big job, but the extra-tall version of IKEA’s Pax wardrobes do present some unique problems. In this case, the ceiling wasn’t high enough to build them face-down, as usual, and then lift them into position. Instead, they had to be built standing up. How do you do that, bearing in mind that an eight-foot (244cm) board isn’t going to just stand there while you screw the bits together?

Carefully, is the answer. And successfully. It took a little longer than my preferred face-down method, but everything went together and stayed together. After that, the shelves, rails and drawers were fairly straightforward, although it’s worth pointing out that the more interior fittings you have, the longer you need to allow (especially when you’re paying for my time…). The doors on these tall Pax wardrobes are a doddle, with the two halves of the four hinges simply clicking together – as long as you can lift and control the weight of each door, that is. Once the middle hinges are attached you need to do the bottom one, then you can relax a bit while you do the top hinge. Only one hinge needed any adjustment for all six doors to be perfectly aligned. That’s a wonderful improvement on the old system where you could spend an age getting everything straight.

Bear in mind that the hinges have to go where they have to go, so shelves, drawers, connecting bolts, etc, can’t use the same holes. Experience has taught me to hang one door as a guide before I added all the interior fittings.

The three chests were all from the Malm range but all different – a three drawer one I did last of all, a two-by-three drawer low level chest and a tall narrow one with a mirrored lid. They all went together very nicely although assembling all those drawers did get a mite tedious! There were glass tops for the non-mirrored chests, too, which add a glossy and hard-wearing finish that compliments the high-gloss doors of the wardrobes.

Just the wardrobe door handles to add, and we’re done.

EDIT: Handles were duly added the following evening, once we’d agreed where to fit them (there are no pre-drilled or even pre-marked holes in the doors. In any case, the handles were from B&Q, so the screws would probably be at different centres from IKEA ones.). I measured very carefully, and several times, before drilling a single hole – it’s very easy to make an unsightly and costly mistake.

All done, the final result was very smart and the room as a whole looks bright and stylish.

Many Happy Returns

Bookcase assembly, Furniture assembly, IKEA Assembly, Uncategorized

Still on the theme of return visits to satisfied customers, this week so far has demonstrated my point – once you provide an excellent service that someone needs or wants, they’ll happily keep coming back to you.

Or, in a service like Flatpack Jersey, they’ll happily have you come back to them.

So far this week, I’ve made four visits to a brand new customer, with a high probability of at least a couple more.

Why?

I can only think it’s the excellent service. There’s really nothing more to it.

The Best Referrals of All

Bed assembly, Furniture assembly

I think the best ‘referrals’ you can possibly have are not actually referrals at all, but when a customer you’ve served in the past asks you back.

That happened again when a customer I first visited back in the summer contacted me again with a list of items for me to assemble.

This time it was a cot bed, a wardrobe, a changing table and a rocking chair and stool.

Not only did I not have to ‘sell’ my services to them, I didn’t have to explain my prices or how I work. Being trusted by my customers meant they had no problem leaving me alone in the house to get on with it. That makes things a lot easier for them, of course, since they have their own lives to get on with.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend you leave a tradesperson alone in your house unless you know them very well, but I obviously have a trustworthy persona!