The Secrets of Buying Ready-To-Assemble Furniture
The furniture industry is undergoing a revolution that industries like shoes and apparel have already experienced. Furniture used to have each piece selected and handmade of wood one at a time. The process involved months of waiting time, excessive delivery costs and lots quality problems in both manufacturing and delivery. This industry is rapidly being replaced by mass produced and ready to assemble furniture that is frequently made overseas.
These offerings duplicate the look, durability and ease of the old furniture industry without the high prices and inconvenience. In particular new and innovative manufacturing processes have allowed engineering, finishing, bonding and resins to make less expensive or surplus woods look like traditional furniture. Make no mistake these products are not made of aged hard to find woods that are custom crafted. However, they have the look and feel of products that costs hundreds of dollars more. Therefore, if you’ re looking for cost savings and convenience, ready-to-assemble or knockdown furniture may be just thing.
There are several advantages to RTA furniture. Firstly, it is easier and cheaper to ship furniture in a box compared to shipping furniture that is fully assembled. Secondly, assembled furniture carries a high risk of getting damaged during the shipping process and can result in higher insurance costs. Thirdly, people living in high rise buildings or in homes with narrow passages have difficulty in maneuvering large pieces of bulky furniture. RTA furniture is easy to transport, especially in confined spaces. The beauty with RTA furniture is that should you decide to move, you can simply disassemble the furniture in the reverse order in which you assembled it.
Many people are under the misconception that ready-to-assemble (RTA) or knock down (KD) furniture is cheap and won’ t last. They are usually confusing high-quality RTA furniture with paperboard furniture. There is a huge difference in product that is made with cheap particleboard vs. sturdier plywood or quality composites. And you’ d be surprised many pieces in well-known home furnishings retail stores sales floor are actually pieces that were assembled.
When you’ re looking to buy furniture on a budget and you’ re considering RTA furniture, there are a few things to keep in mind.
As with any other furniture, you want to make sure the dimensions fit your needs and your room. Needless to say when you’ re shopping for furniture you’ re taking your personal style and overall room dé cor into account.
Nonetheless, there are some other things that you should take into account particularly when shopping for knock down furniture.
Most Manufacturers of RTA furniture in the United Stated use standard European Cam Pins and Cam Locks to join the pieces of wood together. This system is very secure and results in an extremely sturdy product. By using Cam Locks and Pins it is not necessary to strengthen the joins with toxic glues. This method also eliminates having to use nails, which not only damages the wood, but once the construction is complete, it is difficult to remove them without damaging the product.
The strength of the furniture is in the wood veneer or laminate. Although the laminate is very thin, it has amazing strength. For example, the average bookcase shelf made with wood veneer can support 75 pounds of weight. Paper laminate, on the other hand, which looks very much like wood, has very little strength and can only support about 20 pounds of weight. Furniture made with paper laminate is often referred to as “ throw-away" furniture.
In terms of the wood and different types of construction here are a few terms and things you should know that can help you choose the right combination of construction and price to fit your needs and budget:
· Veneer in woodworking, refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 millimeters (1/8 inch). Veneer layers are usually glued and pressed onto core panels of different materials (such as wood, particle board or medium density fiberboard) to obtain doors, tops and side panels for cabinets and pieces of furniture.
· Plywood is made from thin sheets of wood veneer, called plies or veneers. These are stacked together with the direction of each ply's grain differing from its neighbors' by 90° (cross-banding). The plies are bonded under heat and pressure with strong adhesives, making plywood a type of composite wood. A common reason for using plywood instead of plain wood is its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, twisting/warping, and its general high degree of strength, as well as being a cost effective alternative.
· Fiberboard is a type of engineered wood product that is made out of wood fibers. Types of fiberboard (in order of increasing density) include particle board, medium-density fiberboard, high-density fiberboard and hardboard. Fiberboard is sometimes used as a synonym for particle board, but particle board usually refers to low-density fiberboard. Particle board (sometimes called chipboard) is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood particles, such as wood chips, sawmill shavings, or even saw dust, and a synthetic resin or other binder, which is pressed and extruded. Particle board is a type of fiberboard, a composite material, but it is made up of larger pieces of wood than medium-density fiberboard and hardboard.
Fiberboard, particularly medium-density fiberboard (MDF), is heavily used in the furniture industry. For pieces that will be visible, a veneer of wood is often glued onto fiberboard to give it the appearance of conventional wood.
· Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down softwood into wood fibers, combining it with wax and resin, and forming panels by applying high temperature and pressure. MDF typically has a density of 600-800 kg/m³ , in contrast to particle board (160-450 kg/m³ ) and to high-density fiberboard (500-1450 kg/m³ ).
In addition to saving you money, flat pack furniture is generally simple to assemble and requires only the use of simple tools. Ready-to-assemble furniture is typically packaged in a kit form with the pieces packaged in one or multiple boxes or bags. The kit may contain a number of flat parts, fasteners, screws, fixings, and other parts that are needed to assemble the furniture. Ready-to-assemble furniture may include basic tools that are necessary for assembly.
Some ready-to-assemble furniture does require the use of additional tools that are not included in the packaging. There are several tools that may be needed to assemble flat pack furniture:
When purchasing ready-to-assemble furniture it is critical that clear, easy-to-follow instructions with individually marked parts are included. Otherwise, the assembly process can turn into a nightmare and defeats the purpose of why you even considered purchasing your pieces in the first place.
Home Decor Express has developed an exciting product line with three leading suppliers, Southern Enterprises, Inc (SEI), Prepac and International Caravan, to fit every dé cor and to make purchasing RTA furniture easy for the consumer.
Although Home Decor Express researches its partners before choosing them and has a checklist of criteria that our partners must meet before we do business with them (so you have less to worry about) here some questions you may to consider when purchasing ready-to-assemble furniture.
· Do the suppliers devote extensive energy to making packaging, shipping and assembly simple? Are the instructions simple and are there care manuals to provide information so that you can prolong the life of your furniture?
· Do the suppliers have warranties and free replacement parts so if there is a damaged part or one is missing there is no need to worry?
· If you are having any problem at all is there a customer service line you can call for help to find the answers you need.
· Is the price-quality ratio reasonable and fair? When considering this question ask yourself whether other standards match your quality, style and convenience needs. What tradeoffs are you willing to make and what are non-negotiables for you. For example, solid hard wood constructed furniture is beautiful and finely crafted but it is also extremely expensive. For example an oak mission style TV table could cost you up to between $1500 and $3000. The same oak mission style TV from the Home Decor Express collection can cost you less than $ 300. This is not a some of time proposition. You can save money and impress your friends and family all of the time.
As long as you keep in mind what you’ re looking for when you’ re shopping for furniture from functional and design perspectives and understand the limitations that may be involved because of your budget, you don’ t have to spend a fortune for a functional, stylish yet practical furniture which only looks expensive – all of which translates into significant value for you.
Home Decor Express had developed an exciting and unique collection of mass produced and Easy to Assemble furniture. Every item offers great style, value and price considerations. In addition we have pre-selected the best items and suppliers to make the shopping experience fast and easy. We also recommend that you look through the collection for ideas and our special collection of decorating items.
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