bloody flatpack

[EddieM]

Ok, so in my defence I have been feeling lousy all day. But started putting the wardrobe together. 1st problem it comes in 3 boxes weighing over 100 kgs in total, they have to go upstairs, ok that done now starting to sweat

Instructions are not too bad to be honest, anyway couple of hours later its finished. Usual litany of problems, one of the drawer runner will not attach properly to the drawer, probably easy to sort out, either slightly longer machine screw or rethread the hole.

One of the shelves is on the cock, now that one really was my fault, but its not really noticable as it a long shelf.

But for the finale the wardrobe doors needed adjusting, last one was being awkward so (snagging on the bottom) decided to "lift" the door by loosening hinge brackets moving the hinge plate up a bit and re tightening the brackets...

Which of course being sh1tty chipboard they refused to do, the heart sinking spinning uselessly.

Oh well order some repair plates and fix that too. So peed off, feel sh1te took over 2 hours and will now no doubt get grief over it... well fed up! Bloody cheap nasty flatpack!

 

[KenGMac]

The fiendish Swedish ? Perhaps

I have found that it either goes like a train or goes bang in your face?

Difficult to believe that there is an Industry built on the back of Ikea [other flat pack makers are available] who arrive in a white van and sort out problems that the purchasers of flat pack encounter.

But not to detract from most modern flat pack it tends to go together well so long as it is not too complex, then you need at least some trade experience.

 

[EddieM]

They were from Argos I think. Yeah your about bob one with either, its a cake walk or a nightmare... well maybe this one wasnt a nightmare but on a scale of 1-10 of difficulty I would say it was a 6/7 and of course still requires completion.

Some years back when I was renovating a few buy to let houses I could knock up the obligatory IKEA stuff in 5-10 mins per unit!

2+ hours for a wardrobe (uncompleted) I ask you!

 

[longdogs]

I put together some Next flat pack furniture recently for a customer. Over all it was of very good quality and the whole thing went well despite the number of items, fittings and instructions.

What made me chuckle though was the packaging diagram. If returning the furniture for any reason, the whole lot has to go back in the box in the exact order it came out including polystyrene, tissue paper and packers. If it's not back in the same order, they won't accept the return apparently. One piece of furniture in particular had probably sixty separate items in the box (not including fittings). And in some cases were spread over several boxes.

 

[john4703]

I remember back in the 1980s giving a price to fit a kitchen, well two prices, one if the customer built the flat packs and the other if I had to build them. I was busy and inflated the cost of building them by massive amount. The lady of the house said her husband was good at DIY and would build all the units to save them some £800. I arrived as scheduled and she asked me to build the units, her (good at DIY) hubby had spent all night building one unit and given up as it was all wrong. It took me nearly all morning to unbuild that one and build all the others

 

[Brigadier]

I put together some Next flat pack furniture recently for a customer. Over all it was of very good quality and the whole thing went well despite the number of items, fittings and instructions.

What made me chuckle though was the packaging diagram. If returning the furniture for any reason, the whole lot has to go back in the box in the exact order it came out including polystyrene, tissue paper and packers. If it's not back in the same order, they won't accept the return apparently. One piece of furniture in particular had probably sixty separate items in the box (not including fittings). And in some cases were spread over several boxes.

I too have had fun with Next flat pack.
I started a bookcase-type thing as the missus went out "with the girls".
I was just finishing as she came back in! I seem to remember something like 36 screws and dowels in one panel alone.....
Best of it was, the next morning, I noticed a small drill hole in the front of the top-piece. I immediately realised that it was for the strap to stop it tipping forward: I'd put the flaming thing on back-to-front
And I would have had to half-dismantle the thing, to get the top back off!
So, on it stayed, wrong way around.....

 

[ladylola]

Difficult to believe that there is an Industry built on the back of Ikea [other flat pack makers are available] who arrive in a white van and sort out problems that the purchasers of flat pack encounter.

I can quite believe it. I've been asked several times to put flat packs together and for one customer I've put up and taken down to re-erect a wardrobe three times in one year each time she has moved house.

 

[ree]

Way back when this stuff first came around - previous, most stuff came onto the tracts as rigid units - we opened up the box to find the instructions in Chinese characters and some other weird language -Mongolian? Hieroglyphics?

The only diagram was a smudged outline on a kind of tissue paper. All the boxes had missing bits or irrelevant parts, some of the screws were too long and would have penetrated the laminate, dowel holes had to be re-drilled, and many of the side panels were LH only. We got there at about one hour per box.



If you think thats bad, well the rant goes on with the terrible saga of an internet supplied bath tub, legs and two panels. A plumber trying for two hours to fix the legs to the tub and the bath panels to the legs. The instructions were absurd, and the diagram showed something like the Eiffel tower.

Eventually we knocked up a frame - should have done that after the first 15 mins.

 

[eveares]

That's flat pack furniture for you.

On a side note; If you ever want to make flat pack furniture stronger, use wood glue as well.

 

[EddieM]

All done, repair plates to the rescue.

 

[gregers]

i had built a 3 door wardrobe from mfi years back for myself,after about 1hr the missus came up and was amazed it wasnt finished
trouble was the thing was so bloody heavy by the time i positioned it where we wanted it i then had to try and bite all the screws up again.
when we moved i attempted to dismantle it and rebuild in our new place it was so loose that in the end i binned it wota waste of time.

 

[Dave54]

i had built a 3 door wardrobe from mfi years back for myself,after about 1hr the missus came up and was amazed it wasnt finished
trouble was the thing was so bloody heavy by the time i positioned it where we wanted it i then had to try and bite all the screws up again.
when we moved i attempted to dismantle it and rebuild in our new place it was so loose that in the end i binned it wota waste of time.

Yeah I built a 3 door one here for my mother in law when she moved in with us. Took me hours! No real mistakes, and went together OK, but as you say bloody heavy, and mauling the thing around by myself. Came to take it apart, and it came apart so badly that I too binned the thing. It looked tat after a couple of years anyway. These things look OK when they are put together new, but fill them with stuff and they deform, the back gets pushed off and they chip on the corners at the slightest knock.

 

[JBR]

Not exactly 'flat pack', but I built some book shelves to fill one wall of our back room. Having designed it to scale, I got the timber yard to cut all the pieces (must have been well over 50) to size. I sanded them and joined them together, attached in places to the wall, then stained them. That was about ten years ago and they haven't fallen down, or even sagged, yet. Wood, even softwood, is better than MDF!