Furniture assembly in Fulham

Furniture assembly in Fulham, from cots to wardrobes

Flat pack instructions make every job look like an hour's work. In real life a large wardrobe with sliding doors can take most of a day, especially once you add the hanging rail, the drawers, the doors that need adjusting and the strap that fixes it to the wall.

As a handyman in Fulham, our furniture assembly covers the whole thing: unpacking, checking every part against the list, building the item in the room where it will live, levelling it, adjusting doors and drawers so they line up, and fixing it to the wall when it is tall or top heavy. Cardboard is flattened and stacked so it is ready for recycling.

We build furniture from all the big high street and online brands, plus beds, office chairs, desks, shelving units, children's furniture and garden sets. Jobs come in from Fulham itself and from Parsons Green, Fulham Broadway and Hammersmith.

Getting flat pack into Fulham terraces and flats

Narrow terraced hallways, tight turns on the stairs and small mansion block lifts all affect how a job is done. For furniture assembly in Fulham homes, large items are always built in the room they are going in, because a finished wardrobe often will not fit through a period doorway or round a landing.

Ceiling height matters too. A tall wardrobe is built lying down and then stood up, and as it tips upright its diagonal is longer than its height. In a loft room with a sloping ceiling, or a basement flat with a low one, it may need to be built standing up instead. Measure before you order, and tell us the ceiling height when you ask for a quote.

If your block has rules on using the lift or protecting the communal hallway, let us know so the job can be planned around them.

Fixing tall furniture to the wall

Many tall wardrobes, bookcases and chests of drawers come with a wall strap or bracket from the maker. It is there to stop the unit tipping forward, which matters most in homes with young children who like to climb. We fit it on every job where one is supplied, and we can add one where it is not.

How it fixes depends on the wall. Solid brick outside walls need masonry plugs. Lath and plaster partition walls, common in older Fulham houses, need the fixing to go into a timber stud rather than just the plaster. Plasterboard walls in conversions and newer flats need a proper cavity fixing or a stud. We check for cables and pipes before drilling.

In a rented flat, ask your landlord before we drill. Your tenancy agreement may say what you can and cannot fix to the walls.

Uneven floors and old skirting boards

Victorian floors are rarely level. A wardrobe built on a sloping floor will have doors that swing open or will not line up. The fix is packing under the base or adjusting the feet until the carcass (the main box of the unit) is level and square.

Deep period skirting boards also stop units sitting flush against the wall. Depending on the furniture, we fix it with a neat gap at the top, or cut a notch in the back panel at the bottom. If you want flat pack units to look fully built in, our carpentry page covers fitting them into alcoves with scribed panels.

What to have ready

A little preparation makes the visit faster.

• Boxes in the room where the furniture will go, if you can manage it
• Floor space cleared, roughly the size of the item laid flat
• Instructions and the bag of fittings kept together
• A note of the brand and product names in your request
• A decision on exactly where each item will stand
• Permission from your landlord if you rent and the item needs fixing to the wall

Common flat pack problems we fix

Missing fittings and damaged panels are the most common hold up. Each part is checked before the build starts, so if something is missing you can ask the retailer for a replacement straight away instead of discovering it halfway through.

We also rescue furniture that someone else has built. Overtightened cam locks (the round metal fittings that pull panels together) can strip the board, drawers can be fitted upside down and doors are often left hanging crooked. Many of these can be put right without starting again.

Moving house is another common reason to book furniture assembly in Fulham. Flat pack furniture rarely survives a move fully built, so we take it apart carefully, bag and label the fittings, and rebuild it at the new place.

Common questions