Furniture Assembly near you

Chests of drawers, bookcases and wardrobes tip when the centre of gravity moves forward, which is exactly what happens when the drawers are pulled out or a child climbs them. The manufacturer's answer is a strap or bracket from the top of the unit into the wall, and public safety advice in the United Kingdom is consistent about securing bulky, heavy furniture in every room rather than only in a nursery. The strap is cheap and the screw is short, which is why it is so often left in the bag.

The part that goes wrong is the wall. A 30mm screw and a plastic plug will hold in solid brick or block, but plasterboard on timber studs needs the fixing to land in a stud or to use a proper cavity fixing, and dot-and-dab plasterboard on masonry is worse again: there is an air gap behind the board, so a short fixing pulls the board itself off the wall under load and takes the wardrobe with it. An assembler who checks what the wall is before choosing the fixing is doing the safety-critical part of the job.

If nothing solid can be reached - a rendered chimney breast, a brittle lath and plaster wall, a partition with a cable run behind it - the honest answer is to move the unit, use a longer fixing into the structure behind the lining, or fix through into the floor instead. It is not to tighten the strap and hope.

Missing and damaged parts are the commonest delay, and they are not the fitter's fault or within the fitter's power to fix. Check the box against the parts list on delivery rather than on the morning of the build, because most manufacturers will send a replacement panel or fitting quickly if asked early, and a fitter who arrives to a half-complete box has to charge for the visit anyway.

Access is the second. Victorian and Edwardian staircases with a tight half-landing will not take a made-up wardrobe or a large mattress base, and a lift in a block of flats may be too short for a two-metre panel. That is an argument for building in the room, which in turn means the room needs to be clear of the old furniture before anyone arrives.

The third is the floor. Suspended timber floors dip towards the middle of a room and old screeds fall away at the edges, so a run of units that looks level against the skirting can be visibly out against the ceiling line. Levelling is a normal part of the work, but it takes time, and it is time worth allowing for rather than being surprised by.

Assembly and manufacture are separate contracts, and it is worth keeping them apart in your head. The fitter is responsible for building the item properly, for choosing a suitable fixing and for not damaging your property. The retailer is responsible for supplying furniture that is as described and free from faults, which is where a cracked panel, a missing fitting or a warped door belongs.

That matters for the paperwork. Take photographs of any damage as the box is opened, keep the order number, and do not let a fitter force a damaged part into place to save a return visit, because a panel that has been drilled twice is much harder to claim on. If a unit was assembled by someone other than the retailer, expect the retailer to ask whether the instructions were followed - another reason to keep the leaflet rather than bin it with the cardboard.

Assembly is priced on time, and the things that move the time are the number and type of items, whether the build happens at the door or upstairs in a room that must be cleared first, how much of the furniture needs fixing back to a wall and what that wall turns out to be, whether anything existing has to be dismantled and removed, and how much packaging is leaving with the fitter. Two identical wardrobes in two identical bedrooms can be very different jobs if one goes against a stud partition and the other against dot-and-dab plasterboard.

LokalMatch is the introduction, not the fitter. You describe the job once with your postcode - how many items, which rooms, what needs wall-fixing, whether old furniture is going - and assembly and handyman businesses working in your area contact you. Using LokalMatch costs homeowners nothing; the businesses pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not do the work, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, so insurance, references and what each quotation covers remain your questions to ask.