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IKEA-Oriented Development

taylor.town

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Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#101

Post by radlad »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #97
Gare wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we made sure to screw all IKEA furniture to the wall That's what the instructions tell you to do

I'll check next time, because I've never noticed it, nor have I seen many people doing it.

It is in the instructions (which typically don't have words, IIRC.) Brackets have been included with all shelves we've purchased - even ones that seem short & sturdy enough to use it.

IKEA also sells furniture of varying qualities - for example, KALLAX is a well-known line of shelves that many vinyl enthusiasts use to store records. Records are extremely heavy, but these stand the test of time.

Another example is in the bedroom department: MALM vs KULLEN. The former is much thicker and sturdier, with drawers that have metal hardware. Kullen on the other hand is thinner, flimsy, and uses plastic hardware for the drawers, giving them an awful tactile feel.

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#102

Post by dylan604 »

wlesieutre wrote: post #99
naet wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have moved many times with Ikea furniture and purchased it used with no problems. Ikea furniture is some of the most disassemble and reassemble-able furniture I've seen.

My oldest Ikea piece is a 4x2 EXPEDIT shelf which has been moved three times now. Twice across town in a car (disassembled and reassembled), once across states (still assembled on a truck). It’s doing fine. My nightstand only went through the truck move though, and it has chunks missing on the bottom corners. The moving company warned us that it was common and they would refuse to move it unless we we willing to forg…

>The moving company warned us that it was common and they would refuse to move it unless we we willing to forgo any damage claims on those pieces.

I mean, talking about having you over a barrel. They know precisely that you will not stop, and find another mover. All they need to do is stretch wrap the bejeebus out of the bottom to protect those exposed pressed wood chips, but they don't want to have to do that, so they have you give them a waiver and move on to not caring

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#103

Post by yencabulator »

ukuina wrote: post #46
rootusrootus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My most recent lesson of IKEA is that quality has gone to shit. And prices are pretty high, all considered. Bought a couple new Hemnes dressers a few months back and they are just garbage compared to the older stuff. Material quality is same as usual, but the precision of manufacturing is gone. In the end, only one or two drawers actually open correctly. The rest bind up to varying degrees. I'm tempted to partially d…

They have also replaced previously metal joints and screws with wooden pieces. I had to bolster my chest of drawers with additional wooden center beams to prevent it from bowing from evenly distributed weight. Oddly, there were already provisions for these additional beams, leading me to believe the design was "simplified" on the way to manufacturing.

> Oddly, there were already provisions for these additional beams, leading me to believe the design was "simplified" on the way to manufacturing.

More likely is that an earlier version of the product did have those supporting beams. Not on the way to manufacturing, during manufacturing.

The typical IKEA experience is that the first 1-2 years of a product are built sturdier than later versions. They figure out ways to cut the cost of existing products. This hurts the consumer, because even if you hear "oh the Flybnort is very sturdy", that might no longer be true.

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#104

Post by _dain_ »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #58
amemisoglu wrote: post #5

From "quality" perspective, don't imitiate Ikea :)

Tbf there’s two different levels of IKEA. There’s the flimsy, throwaway stuff (good for what it is) and then there’s a higher quality level. The higher quality items come at a price that is commensurate with their quality level but definitely jarring compared to the pricing of other IKEA items.

Is there a list of which items are in which tiers?

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#105

Post by anjel »

euroderf wrote: post #6

Another lesson of Ikea is that often you cannot move them from one home/apartment to another, because if you try to take it apart and then reassemble it, it's never the same. To extend this via analogy to the software realm, a deep refactoring is problematic whereas OTOH a complete rewrite is a better idea. Which has not borne borne out by industry experience.

For quite a few thousand dollars, I bought a preconstructed lacquer bedroom set from a pricey national furniture chain. The saleman said the bedroom set came with a 10 yr warranty. 4 years later, I moved to a new residence, right after which the bed frame developed a nasty squeak (you know when) that definately hadn't been operative before I moved. I made a warranty claim to the national brand furniture company and was quickly educated as to the warranty fine-print terminating said warranty coverage at any address other than the one they delivered it to. Moving is rough on furniture in ways too costly to address by design, these days.

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#106

Post by TeMPOraL »

codetrotter wrote: post #98
TeMPOraL wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone seems to chime in with comments confirming your experience, so let me add an opposite take: all IKEA furniture I ever dealt with were... at best, meh. Some may look almost durable when assembled, but they start to accumulate damage over months to years of regular use. Not careless use, but also not super-careful use as if it were a museum piece. Just regular use. Which is why I too claim that all IKEA furnit…

> all IKEA furniture I ever dealt with were... at best, meh Also, can we get a raise of hands on the number of people who have vs have not been successful in disassembling and reassembling IKEA BILLY bookshelves? I am fully convinced that it is near impossible for your average person to disassemble and reassemble BILLY bookshelves without damage. I have a number of shelves possibly still sitting in storage at the uni…

I'm definitely keeping my hands down. IKEA BILLY are the ones we've inherited from the previous owners when moving in to the current apartment, and we had a handyman reinforce each one in the entire row with angle braces, and then screw them together so they don't flex independently, and then screw them to the wall - and only at that point we felt comfortable enough to start putting books into them.

We've also inherited a few spare elements for BILLYs, I think some doors and shelves, never unpacked. I believe the previous owner gave up at the idea of attaching them to the assembled bookshelves, and never bothered to return them to the store.

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#107

Post by mook »

naet wrote: post #29
euroderf wrote: post #6

Another lesson of Ikea is that often you cannot move them from one home/apartment to another, because if you try to take it apart and then reassemble it, it's never the same. To extend this via analogy to the software realm, a deep refactoring is problematic whereas OTOH a complete rewrite is a better idea. Which has not borne borne out by industry experience.

I have moved many times with Ikea furniture and purchased it used with no problems. Ikea furniture is some of the most disassemble and reassemble-able furniture I've seen.

IKEA furniture varies a lot in quality (especially across years) so talking about them as a whole is difficult. I could never get the Bestå doors straight, but the Malms seem pretty sturdy. Lack things (especially the simple end table) looks like they wouldn't survive being assembled the first time, nevermind moving it…

Some movers once mentioned that old IKEA stuff was in general great, then they were terrible, and then they were just okay. Since they resigned Billy about a year ago†, they're probably going to get cheaper again.

† https://about.ikea.com/en/newsroom/2022/05/24/ikea-relaunche...

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#108

Post by wlesieutre »

dylan604 wrote: post #102
wlesieutre wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My oldest Ikea piece is a 4x2 EXPEDIT shelf which has been moved three times now. Twice across town in a car (disassembled and reassembled), once across states (still assembled on a truck). It’s doing fine. My nightstand only went through the truck move though, and it has chunks missing on the bottom corners. The moving company warned us that it was common and they would refuse to move it unless we we willing to forg…

>The moving company warned us that it was common and they would refuse to move it unless we we willing to forgo any damage claims on those pieces. I mean, talking about having you over a barrel. They know precisely that you will not stop, and find another mover. All they need to do is stretch wrap the bejeebus out of the bottom to protect those exposed pressed wood chips, but they don't want to have to do that, so th…

Honestly I'd rather have the damaged furniture than waste that much plastic trying to protect it. If it really bothered me I could patch it up with scrap wood and white paint that I already have sitting around.

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#109

Post by TeMPOraL »

aidenn0 wrote: post #18
switch007 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had mixed success with their manuals. While I admit there is a certain genius to it, I don't fully share your enthusiasm. Maybe I'm stupid but I feel like some words could really help to speed up the deciphering of the instructions.

One piece of Ikea furniture I assembled had two different depths of the same diameter nut. A single sentence warning about using the correct depth nut at one point would have saved me approximately 90 minutes of frustration.

I mentioned it elsewhere - though not that I've learned it the hard way - that IKEA instructions have extremely good attention to details. Yes, some warnings would've been useful, but after being burned by it once, I realized that if you look carefully, all elements are drawn both to scale, and accurate with respect to shape and attachment points - meaning, the steps are actually unambiguous, but you have to pay attention to those tiny details, sometimes 1mm or less in size.

Re: IKEA-Oriented Development

#110

Post by TeMPOraL »

hartator wrote: post #26

> If you have a hammer and screwdriver, you can build Ikea furniture. I never had to use a hammer with Ikea furniture.

Other than the backs of wardrobes and bookshelves that are attached by nails, IIRC you can occasionally find elements that need to be hit with a hammer to ensure full, tight fit - in those cases you want a rubber-tipped hammer though.
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