Handyman’s tips to assembling flat pack furniture

Flatpack Furniture Assembly Reading

So you fancy doing some furniture assembly yourself? Furniture assembly is relatively easy if you have the right tools for the job, enough spare time and enough room on the floor to spread all the panels and parts. Here are some tips and pointers that will help you complete that assembly job.

Flatpack Furniture Assembly Reading

Get ready and do your research

If you are going to assemble your newly bought flatpack furniture yourself then make sure you have some tools ready. Depending on what furniture you buy you might need a hammer, set of screwdrivers, hex keys and possibly some wrenches. We would recommend you get an electric screwdriver or you might end up with sore hands afterwards. Also, make sure that you have enough space in your room where you will be assembling flatpack furniture. Most wardrobes are assembled on the ground then you lift them up and move them into position. You might want to ask your partner/friend/dad to help you with that because flatpack wardrobes can be extremely heavy.If possible do your assembling in an area with lots of room to move, a room with minimal clutter also helps because you don’t want to lose small bits and pieces. If you’re putting together a bed, wardrobe, table or another large item, assembling in the room it is going to live in makes sense, just clear as much space as you can. It’s much easier to keep track of all the pieces if you have them laid out rather than stacked up.

If you are assembling furniture on a hard floor, lay an old blanket out to assemble on so the floor and the furniture doesn’t get scratched or damaged during assembly.
Use as much light as you have available, open curtains or blinds, turn on the lights and grab any bright lamps you have to keep the room as light as possible.
Wear gloves because there may be a risk of a splinter, a blister from the Allan key or a pinch when the pieces finally fit together. You might want to keep the room child free whilst you are doing all this. Stepping on screws or nails is not fun.

Sort it out

Sort the pieces of furniture before you start into relevant piles. Instructions usually tell you what you will need first. From our experience, you don’t need to count all the screws, dowels etc even though instructions usually tell you to. Just separate all the bits into separate piles according to size and type and you are ready to roll. In the unlikely case that anything is missing you will need to contact your supplier and ask them to send some parts. If that’s the case stop and wait until you have all the parts necessary to complete the job. You might think that your furniture is going to be ok if you miss one screw or a dowel but it won’t – it will be less stable and the whole panel can crack and break if there are dowels or screws missing.

flat-pack assembly Reading

Flatpack Instructions

Read the instructions before you begin

Whilst the flat pack furniture instructions are just pictures with numbers it is absolutely critical that you understand the whole process. Start from page one to get an idea of what parts you will need first and flick through all the pages to get an idea how the whole process will work. If you think you won’t be able to complete the assembly process then don’t start. If you get stuck and don’t know what you are doing wrong then do some googling or youtube your product name. There might be a video out there with detailed assembly instruction which could help you.

Ready to start?

Remember, take it easy and follow the instructions.
Make sure you fix mistakes as soon as you see them, it will be much harder to fix them if you continue with step 3,4,5.. then realise you have to take everything apart again.
Take a break if you get stuck or do some googling.
You don’t want to overtighten screws because your panels might split.
If your panels split or break contact you flat pack furniture company and see if you can get a single section replacement.
If you get stuck and it all seems too much just call in the flat pack assembly professionals. Reading Handyman put together furniture all the time and will have your flat-pack furniture up in no time.

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2 Comments

  1. Sana

    I paid a guy to assemble a bed from IKEA. He made a mess and didn’t know how to use those round things to secure the frame properly. He suggested getting L brackets and stuff which I thought was weird. Ikea would not sell me a bed and expect me to buy extra parts to assemble it? Luckily a quick google search for “furniture assembly in Reading” brought Handyman Reading to my house and within 30 min the bed was assembled properly. Thanks again for your help.

    • Handyman Reading

      Hi Sana. I am still puzzled that someone who advertises their flatpack furniture assembly services on Gumtree doesn’t know how to use IKEA’s locking joint wheels. All IKEA beds use that locking system and even if you never used it before it’s pretty self-explanatory how it works.