Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

goodnewsnetwork.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 622 posts

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#461

Post by bmitc »

gregmac wrote: post #449
bmitc wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that a little wood glue on the joints goes a long way in the IKEA furniture I have.

That's a great idea, I'll definitely be doing that in the future! I've added L-brackets to key spots on Ikea furniture before, and it often increases how sturdy it feels by an order of magnitude. Just the other day I fixed a 5 year old Billy bookshelf (that I broke while moving it, while partly loaded with books) by securing the cardboard back with screws instead of finishing nails and adding a couple metal brackets…

I only started doing it because I have a bunch of the Regissor line. It actually has a screwless assembly process, only being held by friction joints. Over time and after being moved a lot, the coffee table started to loosen. So I took it apart and reassembled it with wood glue in the joints, and now it’s as solid as a rock. I mainly buy the “higher-end” IKEA stuff with real wood or at least stronger particle or plywood or whatever it is except for the Kallax line, so that helps as well.

I just like IKEA so much because they have well designed stuff for good prices, even their more expensive things relative to their cheaper stuff. And with mild care and tweaks during assembly, it can be quite solid. I wish I had thought of the wood glue sooner as well because I’m too lazy to redo my bookshelves.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#462

Post by gautamcgoel »

fimdomeio wrote: post #13

I have a problem with IKEA. Aren't those peaces of furniture made of composite materials and those not so sturdy shelves a sustainability problem when compared to traditional furniture making which is mostly wood glue a protective coat which lasts for hundreds of years can be infinitely repaired in a workshop with some basic tools. And then it it all ends it can became firewood, which ikea furniture can't. Shouldn't…

Why can't IKEA furniture be used as firewood?

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#463

Post by bebop »

Waterluvian wrote: post #454
nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

FWIW IKEA has a lot of solid wood (often pine) options that do last a very long time. My favourite thing is that they degrade gracefully. You get scuffs and dents rather than peeling laminate and engineered wood shavings falling out.

My wife and I bought a kitchen worktable from Ikea almost 10 years ago. It is made entirely out of pine and is actually pretty nice. The surface was getting very well used, as I had it in the garage for a workbench for a little while. I took the power planer to it and put some tung oil on it, it looks brand new.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#464

Post by throwaway894345 »

ashtonkem wrote: post #392
nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

Their habit of using illegally harvested wood is a good reason to hate them.

Is that true? They make a big show of their environmentalism. In general, I'm very disappointed at how difficult it is to make informed consumer choices with respect to the environment. Maybe the idea is that consumer choices are small potatoes and we should all just pour our energy into campaigning for climate policy?

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#465

Post by hello_moto »

throwawaygh wrote: post #409
candu wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I dislike IKEA for registering as a non-profit, when they're very clearly not. To me, this belongs in the same bucket as any number of tax avoidance schemes that ensure wealthy individuals pay far lower tax rates than the average person, and that large corporations pay effectively nothing. If they're able to provide great customer service - well, good on them, but I'd much rather the public purse have the…

> Personally, I dislike IKEA for registering as a non-profit, when they're very clearly not. They're clearly not a charity. But there are TONS of tax-sheltered businesses that aren't charities. To me, it's morally equivalent to eg churches that use tax-free money to buy and operate super nice concert venues. Or any other non-profit that uses pre-tax money to pay salaries. IMO, Ikea > Churches. > or talk to anyone who…

IKEA > (Mega) churches.

There are smaller churches that would benefit from the Govt policies.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#466

Post by notatoad »

nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

It's not Ikea that people hate, it's Ikea customers. People like to think of the moment they upgrades from Ikea furniture to something else as a life milestone where they ascend to another social class, and once they have done that they get to look down on the classes that buy Ikea furniture.

Sure, there's a whole list of supposed justifications, but most people's "upgrade" furniture is the same mass-produced crap, but with some marketing to position it as for the class of people who are too good for ikea. Restoration Hardware and Wayfair are making great money selling people what is essentially Ikea furniture plus a little bit of snobbery.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#467

Post by jeffreyrogers »

nashashmi wrote: post #304
fimdomeio wrote: post #13

I have a problem with IKEA. Aren't those peaces of furniture made of composite materials and those not so sturdy shelves a sustainability problem when compared to traditional furniture making which is mostly wood glue a protective coat which lasts for hundreds of years can be infinitely repaired in a workshop with some basic tools. And then it it all ends it can became firewood, which ikea furniture can't. Shouldn't…

Yeah, that cheap composite wood is use once and dump. It can’t even survive a move sometimes. But is it a sustainability problem? No. In fact if I can recycle wood destined for the furnace into engineered wood, it’s better. If I can recycle engineered wood to become engineered wood again, it’s better. The other benefit of real wood you mention (restoring and finish) happens less in the western world. Here they dump a…

I've moved my Ikea bedframe at least 4 times now. Including once cross-country. Same with a desk and a couple of bookshelves. Seems to last long enough if you use it as intended.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#468

Post by marcinzm »

jojobas wrote: post #257
jwr wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in terms of carbon in the atmosphere, making furniture from wood actually makes a lot of sense, assuming you use sustainable forestry (replant the same amount or more). That carbon in your furniture isn't going into the air anytime soon, hopefully never.

Wood rots in landfills. You have to char it to stop that.

Googling studies indicates that the vast vast majority of carbon (97%) does not get released but simply stays in landfills.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#469

Post by mattkrause »

throwawaygh wrote: post #409
candu wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I dislike IKEA for registering as a non-profit, when they're very clearly not. To me, this belongs in the same bucket as any number of tax avoidance schemes that ensure wealthy individuals pay far lower tax rates than the average person, and that large corporations pay effectively nothing. If they're able to provide great customer service - well, good on them, but I'd much rather the public purse have the…

> Personally, I dislike IKEA for registering as a non-profit, when they're very clearly not. They're clearly not a charity. But there are TONS of tax-sheltered businesses that aren't charities. To me, it's morally equivalent to eg churches that use tax-free money to buy and operate super nice concert venues. Or any other non-profit that uses pre-tax money to pay salaries. IMO, Ikea > Churches. > or talk to anyone who…

That's not particularly nefarious.

The NIH and NSF have two funding programs, the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, that specifically fund startups/spin-outs from their research programs. More here: https://www.sbir.gov/ Some DARPA programs also have similar commercialization milestones: our PMs were pushing people to think about FDA approval and manufacturing.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#470

Post by Zimahl »

ashtonkem wrote: post #400
philjohn wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It all depends on what you buy there. I fitted two IKEA kitchens to past homes I lived in, 14 and 17 years ago. Not professionally fitted either, I did the hard work. I found the properties had both recently been sold and had a look at the listings - both of the kitchens were still doing great. The kitchen I fitted had solid oak door frames with a veneered panel, Quaker style if you will, with standard chipboard cabi…

IKEA cabinets are usually considered one of the best things they make. Plastic layered MDF works really well for cabinetry for whatever reason. Even most woodworkers seem to actually recommend Ikea cabinets, even if they despise the rest of their products.

With my knowledge as a non-professional woodworker, there's not a lot to cabinets. Even professionally made cabinets use veneered plywood for the bases so what IKEA does isn't any different than almost all cabinets here in the US. The US mostly uses 'framed' cabinets instead of European 'frameless' cabinets, but the cabinet box is essentially the same.
Post reply on HN