Blog | The Flat Pack Construction Company

IKEA to Launch “Ready to Assemble” Casket.

January 21, 2014 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

The Swedish multi-national furniture company – IKEA claims to offer huge savings to the average cost of a family funeral with the introduction of a new plywood flat pack coffin. Their new self-assembly coffin arrives in 12 ‘ready to assemble’ components and can easily be assembled in ‘less than 1 hour’ by bereaving relatives.

‘I found it really helped to take my mind of matters’ said grieving Malcolm Baker, 25 (grandson of the deceased). ‘I felt tearful when I began opening the flat pack packaging and slowly started to work out what needed to be done. But once I got started, by the second hour I was shouting and swearing and kicking the tools around the living room. ‘When the coffin was eventually placed into the ground, it broke into pieces and our grandmother’s limbs fell out’

Other families welcome the massive financial saving that the flat pack coffin delivered. ‘We hoped to save money buying a casket for our grandfather because he wasn’t liked much by the family’ said Nellie Williams, 32 from Cardiff. ‘We made him build the flat pack himself before he died. It actually took him 2.5 days to assemble it. On reflection though, we think it may have been that what made him croak.

SATIRE – Original Posting by “www.NEWSBISCUIT.com”.

How to make your flat pack furniture last a lifetime!

January 13, 2014 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

More often than not if you decide to buy new furniture, a huge percentage of furniture sold today will be of the flat packed variety which means someone will have to spend the weekend putting it together which can be at very least a very time consuming and frustrating task especially if you don’t own the right tools. We at The Flat Pack Construction Company have assembled a majority of furniture supplied today in Britain’s high streets and online and would agree that whether the furniture has been designed and manufactured in Eastern Europe, Vietnam, China and not forgetting India a fair amount of it is manufactured with economy of pocket in mind for both the retailer’s profits and attractiveness in price for the end user!.

Some say the furniture is only as good as the person that assembles it, true? Well not necessarily. Poor quality components, i.e. Cams and Cam dowels, drawer runners, drawer bottoms and wardrobe back boards can make your new furniture susceptible to failure as soon as you start to put it into daily use! Fill a drawer up with socks and within a couple of months the drawers bottoms are gradually starting to sag through causing you to curse every morning when hurrying to find what you’re looking for.. What can possibly be done to rectify poor manufacturing, anything?

When assembling any item of furniture, it’s always a good thing to consider gluing areas that are going to be used on a regular and daily basis, i.e. the routed groove which the drawer bottoms sit in and wooden dowels that hold the drawer front in place, could be optionally glued with PVA wood glue (polyvinyl acetate) to ensure that the drawers are going to stand the test of time! Likewise if you’re a flat pack furniture retailer and possibly need to keep relocating your display wardrobe around the store, it’s only a matter of time before the wardrobe starts to warp and the backboard tears away from the nails that pin the backboard to the carcass, the answer? Again a bead of glue carefully run around the routed slot before slotting in the backboard and pinning it evenly with panel pins (supplied with product) will ensure that your flat pack wardrobe will not only be rigid, square but will last far longer than if you didn’t bother!

Not many manufacturers of flat pack furniture supply specialist adhesive nowadays and rely on the fact that their fitting components are up to the job to stand the test of time, so make sure if you’re considering buying flat packed furniture, factor in the thought that the gluing process is a must if you want your self assembly furniture to last. Alternatively you can always call in a company that specialise in furniture assembly and request that they do it for you instead. It will only add a small amount of time onto the job but will be substantially worth it with the reward of solid furniture that will stand the test of time!

I have provided a youtube video to better understand the process that this blog is based upon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwnICDeEe7s

Buying Flat pack Bookcases and Shelving Units.

January 10, 2014 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

Ikea Bookcase

How can you store many new books both quickly and effectively with our help?

Christmas has just passed and so, if you are a bookworm, or perhaps even if you aren’t, you are likely to have been given no shortage of new tomes. While you might be eagerly anticipating reading all of these books over coming weeks and months, you might also be concerned about how you can store these books in a manner that ensures that you don’t misplace that one book that you are especially excited about reading once you finally get enough free time in your schedule. We reckon that, in order to so store these books, you should turn to two particular things: a well-chosen flat pack bookcase and one of our flat pack assembly services.

How you could benefit from the right flatpack bookcase

A flatpack – or, to use an alternative term, ready-to-assemble – bookcase can have many crucial advantages for you, at least provided that you choose it wisely. For example, the great choice of flatpack bookcases on the market ensures that you are likely to be able to choose one that especially satisfies your unique requirements and preferences. This choice includes such bookcases that can be used as single bookcases or as wall-to-wall libraries and the shelves of which can be adjusted to fit an increasingly large book collection. Flatpack bookcases also greatly vary in their colours and styles, which include both classic and modern styles.

How you could benefit from the right furniture assembly service

There are many ways in which you could benefit from arranging for the right flat pack assembly company to put together your ready-to-assemble furniture once it has arrived in your house. However, we have to emphasise, in that sentence, the word ‘right’. Any furniture assembly service can refer to themselves as flat pack assemblers while lacking the right experience and expertise to put together ready-to-assemble furniture properly. This begins to explain why we at The Flatpack Construction Company can provide you with a thoroughly reliable furniture assembly service. Unlike many companies in the same field, we can service you wherever you are in the UK and offer you the industry’s only 30 day workmanship guarantee. We can also, once we have assembled your bookcase, leave the area where we have been working in your house just as it was when we first came. Hence, you won’t have to tidy up once we have left and before you start reading that new novel!

Flat pack assembly made easy!

December 18, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

Flat pack assembly made easy!

In recent years the furniture we buy is more and more often supplied “flat packed”. Many of the popular homeware companies offer affordable, attractive furniture with the promise of “easy assembly”.

However, we all know that it’s only easy when you know how – and more often than not, we don’t! The situation is not helped by missing parts, diagrams that need a degree in engineering to decipher, mystery holes… or lack of them! Frustration often results in damage and ultimately, it’s all too much hassle. Most of us at some point must have thought: “If only there was another way!”.

Now there is. It’s affordable quick and convenient and it’s local to you. The Flat Pack Construction Company offers free quotations and employs friendly and professional technicians. Recommended by GLTC, Dreams and Bensons for Beds, this flat pack assembly service are mobile and fully equipped to wake you from your flat pack nightmare! And of course, they have the tools for the job so there’s no need for repeat visits to the hardware store to buy those one-off tools which you will probably never use again!

As well as flat pack assembly, The Flat Pack Construction Company specialise in those DIY projects that aren’t as easy as they sound – putting up shelf units, mirrors and curtain rails; in fact, all those tiresome jobs about the house that you keep putting off…

www.flatpackconstruction.co.uk

Getting to Know the Owner of IKEA: The Flatpack Billionaire.

September 24, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

The IKEA catalogue is more distributed than the Bible. In southern Sweden, you will find the New Testament right alongside the IKEA catalogue when you stay in a hotel. This is seen when going into the home of Europeans, with IKEA furniture scattered everywhere. Of course, sales of IKEA furniture expand far beyond the European countries. More than 44 countries have contributed to £27.6billion in revenue for the company.

Even with all the money flowing in and the money in the bank, the owner of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, is not one to live the expensive lifestyle. In fact, as the aging billionaire is turning 87, he is not even having a birthday party as he feels it is an extravagance.

While CEOs race around the globe in private jets going on elaborate vacations, Kamprad is happier flying economy class on a budget airline. To drive the point home, he was recently awarded as Businessman of the Year and was denied entrance to the event because he arrived on the bus. He lets everyone know in his memoir Testament of a Furniture Dealer, “We don’t need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!”

Of course, living frugally was not always Kamprad’s forte he has adopted it as his own. The Porsche has been passed in for an old Volvo. The bespoke suits have been traded in for shabby jackets. Even with a modest house in Switzerland (for tax reasons), he still owns the large country estate in Sweden and the vineyard in Provence.

Maintaining the image of a flawed human being with problems like alcoholism, though his assistant has only ever seen him drunk once, has allowed Kamprad to come back from a near disaster when his association with a less than acceptable pro-fascist New Sweden Movement in 1942. He has since been forgiven for what he dubs the “greatest mistake of my life”. He even received a letter from the IKEA family saying they were there when he needed them.

New Navy Aircraft Carriers to Be Built By IKEA

September 17, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

IKEA proudly announces that it has been awarded the contract to build the new class of aircraft carriers for the Navy. The Ministry of Defence confirmed the new warships would be made from the chipboard that has made IKEA furniture so popular throughout the world. The new wooden aircrafts were dubbed “the best they could do with major defence spending cuts”.

About 4000 new jobs will be created thanks to building these flatpack carriers. Sunderland and Liverpool are about to be awash in the finest Allen key operators and screwdriver handlers in all of Britain. This makes up 3500 of the jobs in a contract that will take 3 years to complete. The other 500 jobs are being filled with the MENSA members who have been charged with the difficult task of making sense of the hieroglyphic style instructions being shipped along with the carrier parts.

Even though there was talk of purchasing the knotty pine Eurofighters to go along with the carrier, alas the budget set forth in the treasury guidelines would not allow it. The 40 fighters will be waiting for the next government.

There is a lot of talk about how smart it is to build chipboard style aircraft carriers, but the feeling was that it did not matter. The hope is that it is only a short term fix that will be resolved as soon as the country is back on its feet again. The ships are commissioned with an expectation they will be able to last for at least 18 months before falling to ruin like most IKEA furniture. It is apparently a small price to pay to maintain the appearance of a powerful Navy. Those on the inside have been quoted as saying that even with all its problems, at least it is better than what the French has in the water.

SATIRE – Original Posting by “www.NEWSBISCUIT.com”.

25 Facts about IKEA

September 10, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

25 years ago, in 1987, Warrington, Cheshire became the home of the first IKEA in Britain. IKEA has opened other stores in the UK and is now celebrating 25 years of being a part of the UK lifestyle. To celebrate this, here are 25 facts about IKEA.

The 1956 IKEA catalogue featured the first flatpack furniture piece from IKEA. It was called LOVET and it was a side table shaped like a leaf.
IKEA co-workers (the name lovingly given to them by the owner) number 150,000.
A modern IKEA store averages 32,000 square meters in deference to the original shop located in Almhult. This southern Sweden shop only measured 6,700 square meters.
In 2012, more than 212 million copies of the IKEA catalogue were printed in deference to the 100 million copies of the Bible printed in the same time period. These catalogues are printed in 29 different languages.
IKEA was the name thought up by Ingvar Kamprad (the owner) to include his initials, the initial for the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd) and the village he lived near (Agunnaryd).
Even though there are no IKEA stores in Africa or South America, there are 287 stores located in 26 countries. Spoiler alert: plans are underway to open a store in Cairo, Egypt.
50 million Allen keys and 2.5 billion wooden dowels were distributed in 2011 to help build IKEA flatpack furniture.
Most of the stores throughout the world carry to the same items, to the tune of 85% of the stores.
The American market seemed to love the small flower vases IKEA sells when first introduced to the country. It turns out rather than using them as vases, they were used as tumblers.
Names for IKEA furniture come from Swedish names: Swedish women’s names are used for curtains, Swedish Island names are used for garden furniture, Swedish men’s names are used for chairs, and Swedish place names are used for upholstered furniture. Some names that almost made it to production include ‘Bugga’, ‘Prick’, and ‘Dick’.
The most popular IKEA product is the Billy bookcases with sales of 503,441 units.
Before IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, he sold everything from matchbooks to nylon stockings to cigarette lighters and even fountain pens.
When IKEA first started serving food it was because Ingvar Kamprad learned that many customers were leaving without buying anything due to hunger. Since opening in 1987, British consumers are responsible for eating 1.2 billion hot dogs and 11.6 billion Swedish meatballs.
Within the first 8 months of 2011, IKEA’s pre-tax profits increased from £3.27bn to £3.76bn.
IKEA distributed 60 million hinges in 2011.
There are 800 to 1,000 different screws that are used by IKEA furniture.
A set of bedroom beds and chest of drawers called MALM is the most popular and highest selling line.
There have been more than 12.8 million IKEA mattresses sold since 1987. This accounts to one of every two households in all of the UK. This makes it possible to conceive up to one in five kids in Britain were conceived on an IKEA mattress.
Reading is the next location for an IKEA UK shop.
The Runcon Development Corporation was able to change IKEA’s mind about where to open its first store in the UK. Originally slated for London, Runcon won out with their plans to regenerate the area.
Warrington was the location of the first store in the UK, opened in 1987.
The forest is only responsible for 60% of the IKEA products produced.
Denim sofa upholstery sourced from China made Kamprad known as one of the first companies willing to use China as a source. Today, better than 20% of the raw materials IKE uses are from China.
A rise in turnover within IKEA was seen with a 7% increase from 2011 to the €24.7 in 2012.
The food court inside of IKEA stores allows for €1.2 billion in turnover in 2011.

These are just 25 of the facts you can find out about IKEA. Keep their flatpack furniture in mind the next time you are looking for something affordable and attractive for your home or office.

Simplistic Chair Assembly

August 25, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

What condition is your dining table in? Often, dining tables far outlast the chairs that came with them. Tables aren’t forced to take the abuse poor chairs suffer – big and little bodies plopping down on them, tilting precariously on the back legs, and bottoms wiggling and jiggling on their seats. So what should you do if you have a great table, but find that your chairs are shot?

Flat pack chairs are an affordable, stylish solution to the problem. Are you ready to tackle chair assembly yourself, though? It’s a time consuming, laborious process, but don’t worry. There is an easier way.

The Disadvantages of DIY Chair Assembly

There are several factors that make assembling your own furniture an arduous task. The first is the amount of time it requires. In the case of dining room or kitchen chairs, each chair may take an hour or longer to put together. If you want 8 chairs to go with your table, you will spend a minimum of an entire workday on the project. And that’s if you don’t take any breaks.

Understanding furniture assembly instructions can be challenging as well. Some companies are good about keeping directions simple and concise and others really aren’t. Sometimes, you have to search amongst directions given in 3 or 4 languages, just to find the English. Others are written in a format that is confusing or unclear. The pictures, if there are any, might be helpful or they might just make things worse.

Of course, there are people who simply are not physically able to assemble their own furniture. If you have a bad back, weak heart, carpal tunnel or other difficulties, you probably shouldn’t attempt flat pack assembly yourself. Even unassembled, some of the pieces can be quite heavy and bulky.

So what are the alternatives to assembling your new dining room chairs yourself?

Chair Assembly Made Simple

Using professional furniture assemblers is a great option. These experts have years of experience and the proper tools to get the job done quickly and efficiently. A reputable flat pack construction company will have skilled employees who are screened and thoroughly trained, so you don’t have to worry about having them in your home or office.

You’ll be surprised at just how affordable professional assemblers can be, too. Even with the combined price of your flat pack furniture and your assembler, you’ll still have a minimal investment in quality, well-constructed chairs.

So why not make the process of chair assembly easy on yourself? Hire a team of pros who can do the job right the first time. The best companies will guarantee their workmanship, so you can breathe easy knowing the furniture they build is going to last for a long time. You’ll save yourself time, money, and headaches when you buy flat pack furniture. All those who agree, please be seated in your comfortable new chairs.

Wardrobe Assembly Made Simple

August 17, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

A wardrobe plays an important role in your bedroom. The storage space it provides is invaluable. It helps protect the clothes you have invested a considerable amount of money in, and it keeps them neat and organized. Unfortunately, wardrobes are also expensive.

There is, however, a way to get an attractive, functional wardrobe without spending a fortune. Choose a wardrobe from a flat pack furniture manufacturer. They cost significantly less than a fully constructed wardrobe, yet still look and work great. The downside? You have to do the wardrobe assembly yourself.

The Cons of DIY Wardrobe Assembly

Regrettably, furniture assembly is not the easiest task around. Large pieces like wardrobes are heavy, even when they are not assembled. It usually takes at least two people to construct wardrobes, entertainment centers, desks or other big pieces.

Assembling a wardrobe or other large piece of furniture is not only a difficult project, it is also a time consuming one, especially if you’re a novice at the job. It can take the better part of a day to put together a piece as big as a wardrobe. First you have to sort all the parts, then you have to figure out where each one goes. Sometimes the instructions are clear and helpful, but other times they are just plain confusing. Your frustration levels can quickly rise.

So What’s the Solution?

There is, thankfully, an alternative. You can still save money by buying a ready-to-assemble wardrobe and hiring professional assemblers to put it together for you.

When you choose a reputable company to do your flat pack assembly, you choose to forego the problems that come with doing the job yourself. These guys are experts and they know how to get the job done quickly and correctly. They have years of experience and have been trained to assemble all different kinds of furniture. They’ve got the right tools to get the project done right – the first time –in the shortest amount of time possible.

A trustworthy flat pack construction company has screened their employees, making sure they only send honest, reliable workmen to your home or office. They also guarantee their work, giving you peace of mind about the safety and quality of their workmanship.

The best part is that it is surprisingly affordable to have your furniture assembly done by professionals. Even when the price for assembly is taken into consideration, you are still making a wise investment when you purchase quality flat pack furniture.

Not everyone enjoys assembling furniture, but most people do enjoy saving money. Cash in on the great values available on stylish, quality flat pack furniture, then let the pros do the hard part for you. You don’t have to deal with the headaches just to save a dollar. Your new wardrobe will look wonderful in your home and the cost of construction will be well worth the price.

Picking the Best IKEA Furniture Installers

August 9, 2013 By Kane Smithers Leave a Comment

IKEA furniture provides consumers with a great way to save money on their furniture while still enjoying quality pieces for their homes and offices. When purchasing this furniture, however, it is a good idea to hire IKEA furniture installers to help put together the pieces and make certain they are properly assembled. When hiring IKEA furniture installers, there are several things you should keep in mind in order to make certain you get the best results possible.

Experience

The years of experience the company has is an important factor when selecting from among the IKEA furniture installers available in the UK. The reality is that some furniture installers may have experience with flat pack furniture, but not specifically with the IKEA brand. The more experience the furniture installers have with putting together IKEA flat pack furniture, the faster and more efficiently the company will be able to put the pieces together.

Reputation

When comparing the services provided by various professional IKEA furniture installers, reputation is an important factor to consider. Ask the company to provide you with references that you can verify and to an Internet search of the company name. If the company has handled any jobs poorly, you are likely to find information about it on the Internet.

Price

Obviously, price is a factor to consider when determining which of the available IKEA furniture installers you will work with. At the same time, you don’t want to choose a company based solely on price. Rather, search for the company that offers the best combination of experience and reputation with lower prices. This way, you can get the best value possible. Also, be certain to find out how the costs are calculated and select the company that offers the most attractive method.

Guarantees

You should also work only with IKEA furniture installers that offer guarantees on their work. One of the reasons for hiring a professional furniture installer is to make sure the piece is put together safely. If someone were to get injured while using the furniture and the injury resulted because the piece was put together poorly, the furniture installation company should have insurance in place to cover these expenses. Ask the company to explain its guarantees and to show proof that it is properly insured before hiring.

By considering these four factors when choosing from among the various available IKEA furniture installers, you will be more likely to select a reputable provider that will get the job done right the first time.

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