Furniture Assembly & Storage in Morrisville, NC

Measure the turn, not the door

Morrisville has a high share of townhomes and attached properties, and those plans stack living space vertically — frequently over three floors, with a garage or entry at ground level and bedrooms at the top.

Which puts the bottleneck somewhere people do not look.

The doorway is rarely the limit. A doorway is a straight opening and you go through it in one direction.

The turn on the stairs is the limit. Almost every townhome stair has at least one half-landing with a ninety or a hundred and eighty degree turn. Getting a large item round that means rotating it in a confined space, which needs both floor area and headroom.

The three measurements that matter

Before ordering anything substantial that arrives assembled:

Clear stair width. Between the handrail and the wall, not between the walls. The handrail steals more than people expect.

The diagonal across the half-landing. Stand at the turn and measure corner to corner. That is the space an item has to rotate within.

Ceiling height above the landing. Because tipping an item onto its end is frequently the only way to get it round, and that needs vertical room.

Upholstery manufacturers publish both the depth and the diagonal depth of their pieces for exactly this reason — the diagonal depth is the measurement that matters at a turn.

If the numbers do not work, better to know before the delivery than during it.

Which is why flat-pack suits these houses

The whole problem disappears when the item goes up as panels.

Boxes go round a turn that a built carcass cannot. They are flat, they can be angled, and they weigh a fraction each.

Nothing gets twisted. Carrying a built carcass round a stair turn racks the frame, loosens every joint and can pull the back panel fixings out. An item that has been wrestled up a townhome stair is frequently never quite square again.

It gets assembled where it will stand, which is how it should be done anyway.

So for a bedroom on the top floor of a three-storey plan, flat-pack is not a compromise — it is the sensible choice.

What we need on the day

The boxes near the room if possible, though carrying them up is a normal part of the job. Tell us in advance if they are heavy or if there are a lot of them, so we bring the right help rather than discovering it.

Floor and stair protection. Panels have hard edges and stair walls in these houses are close on both sides.

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

Anti-tip fixings, and what is behind the wall

Every tall item gets strapped to the wall, and the fixing has to reach framing rather than relying on the plastic plug in the box — that plug holds a picture, not a loaded wardrobe starting to fall.

In an attached home there is one extra consideration: know what is inside a party wall before drilling into it. Some associations also restrict work on shared walls, which is worth checking in your documents.

Where the item does not line up with a stud, a batten fixed between two studs gives the strap something structural.

Noise

Assembly is not quiet — drills, mallets and panels being moved — and it carries through a party wall more than people expect. We keep the noisier part to reasonable hours and let you know roughly when it will happen so you can warn a neighbour.

Storage in a townhome

Space is the scarce thing, so it is worth using properly.

Closet systems. Builder wire shelving is fixed with plastic anchors into drywall and deflects under real weight. Replacing it with shelving on cleats fixed into framing gives you something that holds what you actually put on it, and it lets you use the full height of the closet rather than the middle of it.

Under-stair space. Frequently the only substantial storage in these plans and frequently unused because it is an awkward shape. Shelving built to the actual space rather than bought as a kit makes a real difference.

Garage storage where there is one. Wall shelving fixes into framing and carries far more than overhead racking. Overhead racks hang from the ceiling structure, and where that is trusses the loads and fixing positions have to suit them.

Turnover work

Morrisville has a lot of let property, and assembly and disassembly between tenancies is normal work. Worth knowing that flat-pack does not survive repeated dismantling well — cam fixings and particleboard both wear — so if an item is going to be moved often, that is worth factoring in when it is bought.

Getting a price

Tell us what the items are, how many, and which floor they are going to. For anything arriving assembled, send the three stair measurements above and we will tell you honestly whether it will go.

Morrisville is about twenty minutes from our base in Apex.