Furniture Assembly & Storage in Apex, NC

Build it where it lives

Apex is where we are based, and furniture assembly is one of the more frequent short jobs we do here — partly because there is no travel time in the price, so a single item is worth a visit.

The most useful thing we can tell you about it is where the work should happen.

Anything approaching the size of a doorway gets assembled in the room it will stand in. Not in the garage, not in the hall, not in the room with the most space.

The reasons are practical:

A built item is rigid and it has corners. A wardrobe carcass has sharp external corners that catch on door casings, stair walls and light switches. Every one of those is a mark that stays.

It cannot be twisted. A flat-pack carcass gets its rigidity from the back panel and from being square. Carrying one round a turn means twisting it, which racks the frame, loosens every joint and — on cheaper units — can pull the back panel fixings straight out. An item that has been carried round a stairwell is frequently never quite square again.

Doorway clearance is smaller than the doorway. The clear opening with the door in place, plus the diagonal needed to bring an item through, is considerably less than the frame dimension.

So: boxes to the room, assemble on the spot, stand it up in position.

What that needs

Floor protection. Cardboard or dust sheets down before anything is unpacked. Flat-pack panels have hard edges and there is always a screw on the floor.

Room to work. Roughly the footprint of the finished item again, to lay panels out and get round them.

Somewhere for the packaging. Flat-pack packaging is bulky. It gets broken down and stacked, and if you want it taken away that is worth agreeing in advance.

Getting the boxes there

If you can get the boxes to the right room before we arrive, that helps. If they are heavy, awkward or upstairs, tell us in advance rather than on the day — a wardrobe delivered as four boxes on a driveway is a different proposition from four boxes already in the bedroom, and knowing means we bring the right help.

Anchoring, which is not optional

Any tall item — wardrobes, bookcases, chests of drawers, shelving units — comes with an anti-tip strap or bracket, and it is there for a serious reason. Tall furniture tips forward when drawers are open or when a child climbs it, and it does so quickly.

It fixes into framing, not into drywall. A plastic anchor in plasterboard will not hold a falling wardrobe. We locate the studs and fix into them, and where the item does not line up with a stud we add a batten or use an appropriate fixing that will actually carry the load.

This is included as a matter of course rather than as an option.

Garage shelving

The other half of this service, and the thing that matters is what it fixes to.

Wall-mounted shelving carries its load through its fixings. Into framing, always. A garage wall is frequently unfinished, which is helpful — you can see exactly where the studs are.

Freestanding racking needs a level floor, and garage floors slope toward the door by design. Feet get packed so the unit stands plumb rather than leaning.

Overhead racks hang from the ceiling structure, and what is up there matters. Where a garage ceiling is carried on trusses, the loads and the fixing positions have to suit them — a truss is designed as a system and it is not a place to improvise. Where the arrangement is not suitable, we will say so.

Load matters more than people expect. Paint tins, tools and boxes of tiles are heavy. It is worth being honest about what will actually go on a shelf before deciding what to buy.

Closet systems

Builder wire shelving is fixed with plastic anchors into drywall and it deflects under real weight. Replacing it with something fixed into framing is one of the more satisfying small jobs in a house.

The considerations are the same: fixings into studs, a level datum set from something other than the floor if the floor is out, and honest thinking about what the shelf will actually hold.

Getting a price

Tell us what the item is — a model name or a link is ideal — how many there are, and which room they are going in. If anything is going upstairs, mention it.

Apex is where we are based, so there is no travel time in what we quote here.