Handyman - Flat pack furniture

I call it Flat-out furniture.

The other day I was asked to assemble several pieces of flat pack furniture.

My client had ordered it all online and booked delivery in time for me to swoop in and do my thing.

The delivery was a disaster (I'll write about that another time). But eventually 'most' of the boxes arrived.

Here's what I found:

1. Although the online furniture company presented itself as a single point of contact, each piece of flat pack furniture came from a different manufacturer. So ...

2. Each piece of flat pack furniture was made with WILDLY different standards of quality. One peice was quite good. And one had some fasteners that were faulty - that is, they couldn't even get their screws right!

3. ALL of the flat pack furniture had poor instructions. I had to guess a lot. An inexperienced person could have really stuffed up.

Which brings us to Ikea. Their fasteners and panels are always correct and their instructions are idiot proof (if you pay attention). BUT you can't buy Ikea online AND they choose to outsource delivery to a courier company that has received many bad reviews:

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/australian-national-couriers.html

So what's a girl to do?

1. If you want flat pack, Ikea is very good. Everyone else is a lottery - may be good - may be bad.

2. Avoid delivery if at all possible. You stand a very good chance of being very frustrated. Better value to rent a ute or bribe a friend.

3. Factor in the cost of professional assembly by, say, me. (PS. I charge less for Ikea assembly)

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