I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

Daniele
--
Wanted: TEAC A-2300SX, Akai GX-4000D

D.M. Procida wrote:
I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

Might be easier if you told us what you have to assemble.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:

I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

Might be easier if you told us what you have to assemble.

Let's see...

4 tall (larder-style) cabinets
9 base cabinets
2 wall cabinets

oven
combination microwave oven
sink
gas hob
small fridge

The kitchen is an empty shell at the moment, with nothing in the way.
Most of the stuff is going in a nice straight line along one wall. There
are hardly any fiddly bits to be dealt with.

The worktops can come a bit later, and I don't need to worry about
plumbing in the gas and so on.

So it's mainly to estimatye how long it will take to assemble the
cabinets, put them together and put them in place. Even fitting them out
with their shelves and doors and so on can follow later.

Daniele
--
Wanted: TEAC A-2300SX, Akai GX-4000D

In article ,
(D.M. Procida) writes:
I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

I would say much less than that (at least, after you've done the
first one), but the fitting time can be much longer than the
assembly time. If you look at the total time to fit out a kitchen,
the unit assembly time is probably quite a small part of it.
The longest bits are probably the things you have to customise,
such as fitting worktops, insetting sinks/hobs, any units you have
to modify to work around limitations in the room, all the trim
pieces which need cutting to length, etc.

If you also add in any replumbing, rewiring, tiling, painting, etc,
the unit assembly time has probably become insignificant.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

D.M. Procida wrote:

I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

My only experience of an Ikea unit was a chest of drawers I had to
assemble recently.
I do kitchens for a living, it still took around 75 minutes start to
finish. It was not easy, with instructions needed, as it was not obvious
where which bits went where.
Plain kitchen units may be quicker.
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:18:18 +0000, D.M. Procida wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

Might be easier if you told us what you have to assemble.

Let's see...

4 tall (larder-style) cabinets
9 base cabinets
2 wall cabinets

oven
combination microwave oven
sink
gas hob
small fridge

The kitchen is an empty shell at the moment, with nothing in the way.
Most of the stuff is going in a nice straight line along one wall. There
are hardly any fiddly bits to be dealt with.

The worktops can come a bit later, and I don't need to worry about
plumbing in the gas and so on.

When I had my new kitchen, it was installed "professionally" by that I
mean by people who did it for a living and had the right tools, not that
the standard of work was high. 2 of them: a gaffer and a labourer took
2 days to do the work. That didn't include installing a fridge, cooker
or microwave, though they did install the worktops - including the sink
which involved routing out the holes and jointing an "L" shaped section.

So that's 4 man * days. If this is your first time I'd say to expect
twice as long: from unpacking the cartons, through to disposing of the
packaging.

D.M. Procida wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a
kitchen from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as
conveninet as a rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per
cabinet?

Might be easier if you told us what you have to assemble.

Let's see...

Assuming just the carcass, doors & shelves later. What about drawers? They
can take up a lot of time. And assuming two people, including unpacking,
with somewhere to dump the large amount of packaging, so you don't end up
tripping over it. Don't underestimate the amount of packaging, you are
going to have a cardboard mountain.

4 tall (larder-style) cabinets

Say 35 mins each, roughly 2.5 hours.

9 base cabinets

30 mins each, so 4.5 hours

2 wall cabinets

An hour.

So, I reckon its a good days work for two people.

Two tips I can give on assembling flatpack, which I do a lot of; Get some
kind of divided tray or container to sort the bits into. IKEA frequently
use two sizes of locking cam for example, easy to get bits mixed up. I use
a cheapo plastic nibbles tray I got from a supermarket. Much easier when
all the bits are pre sorted.

I use a small driver to do up the bolts, screws, whatever. Get a 'bit' set
from SF with hexagons etc. Much faster than using the supplied key. I love
my Makita TD020DSE impact driver for this. If I were assembling that much
I'd justify buying one for the job.



oven
combination microwave oven
sink
gas hob
small fridge

Is it just unpacking these? If so, I'd guess 3 hours.

The kitchen is an empty shell at the moment, with nothing in the way.
Most of the stuff is going in a nice straight line along one wall.
There are hardly any fiddly bits to be dealt with.

Yeh right :-)

You've never met the fiddly bits fairy have you?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:59:23 +0000, (A.Lee) wrote:

D.M. Procida wrote:

I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a kitchen
from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as conveninet as a
rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per cabinet?

My only experience of an Ikea unit was a chest of drawers I had to
assemble recently.
I do kitchens for a living, it still took around 75 minutes start to
finish. It was not easy, with instructions needed, as it was not obvious
where which bits went where.
Plain kitchen units may be quicker.
Alan.

The first thing is always the one that takes longest but once you know
where everything goes the next ones should be quicker( in theory
anyway) .Base units with doors will take less time than base units
with drawers but then again base units have legs which C od D's don't
have .

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Two tips I can give on assembling flatpack, which I do a lot
of; Get some kind of divided tray or container to sort the
bits into. IKEA frequently use two sizes of locking cam for
example, easy to get bits mixed up. I use a cheapo plastic
nibbles tray I got from a supermarket. Much easier when all
the bits are pre sorted.
I use a small driver to do up the bolts, screws, whatever. Get a 'bit' set
from SF with hexagons etc. Much faster than
using the supplied key. I love my Makita TD020DSE impact
driver for this. If I were assembling that much I'd justify
buying one for the job.

Agree with above, plus -

Assemble each unit type in batches, much quicker. Do this in another room
if possible, with an old rug or blanket on the floor so you can slide &
invert carcasses without worrying about marking.

Run a line of glue along critical joints during assembly (eg the main outer
panels that make up the 'box'). Result is much stronger than relying on
gimmicky fast-fit cams & self-tappers.

I would aim to assemble the units in a day. Then allow a second full day
for aligning & levelling, notching for cables, planing for fit, fixing to
wall and nailing on the worktops, adding doors etc.

Steve Walker wrote:


Run a line of glue along critical joints during assembly (eg the main outer
panels that make up the 'box'). Result is much stronger than relying on
gimmicky fast-fit cams & self-tappers.

I've seen this mentioned several times, as an IKEA-furniture-building
technique.

Is it really necessary, for items that will be screwed to each other and
a wall, and to a heavy worktop?

Daniele
--
Wanted: TEAC A-2300SX, Akai GX-4000D

In article ,
(D.M. Procida) writes:
Steve Walker wrote:


Run a line of glue along critical joints during assembly (eg the main outer
panels that make up the 'box'). Result is much stronger than relying on
gimmicky fast-fit cams & self-tappers.

I've seen this mentioned several times, as an IKEA-furniture-building
technique.

Is it really necessary, for items that will be screwed to each other and
a wall, and to a heavy worktop?

Not at all -- I've never done it. They're rock solid if you've
put them togther and fixed them correctly.

Very occasionally, you might want to take a unit apart again, e.g.
to cusomise it, and you'd be screwed if you'd glued it (well, not
literally;-)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article
,
(D.M. Procida)
writes:
Steve Walker wrote:


Run a line of glue along critical joints during assembly (eg
the main outer panels that make up the 'box'). Result is
much stronger than relying on gimmicky fast-fit cams &
self-tappers.

I've seen this mentioned several times, as an
IKEA-furniture-building technique.

Is it really necessary, for items that will be screwed to
each other and a wall, and to a heavy worktop?

Not at all -- I've never done it. They're rock solid if you've
put them togther and fixed them correctly.

I agree that it's generally not 'necessary', especially with a great big
worktop running across the top of them. I just like things to be strongly
built, and I have an particular aversion to rickety self-assembly units of
any sort (they remind me of my failure every time I use then).

In message , The Medway
Handyman writes
D.M. Procida wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

I need to work out roughly how long it will take to assemble a
kitchen from IKEA. Based on experience, is there anything as
conveninet as a rough formula along the lines of, say, 1 hour per
cabinet?

Is it just unpacking these? If so, I'd guess 3 hours.

The kitchen is an empty shell at the moment, with nothing in the way.
Most of the stuff is going in a nice straight line along one wall.
There are hardly any fiddly bits to be dealt with.

Yeh right :-)

You've never met the fiddly bits fairy have you?


Or the ****it factor - missing and / or damaged parts


--
geoff

In article , Steve Walker spam-
writes

I agree that it's generally not 'necessary', especially with a great big
worktop running across the top of them.

If you used a rubbery glue, it'd also help seal the edges of the
chipboard so that if they got wet they wouldn't self-destruct.

--
(\__/)
(='.'=) Bunny says Windows 7 is Vi$ta reloaded.
(")_(") http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png