IKEA furniture assembly tips: 15 things that save hours (and the three mistakes that ruin a PAX)

What you need

• PZ2 screwdriver and a ratcheting hex key set
• Cordless drill driver with a clutch, on the lowest torque
• Rubber mallet, spirit level and tape measure
• Old blanket or the flattened box to build on
• Bowls for the hardware, a cable detector and a hammer drill for the anchor
• The hardware bag from the box, counted before you start
• Fischer SX 6x30 or DuoPower 6x30 plugs with 4.5x40 screws for brick (not in the box)
• Fischer Duotec or metal spring toggles for plasterboard
• Plastic wedges for uneven floors, a FIXA bag of spare cams and dowels, masking tape

Step by step

1. 1

   Check the boxes against the order before you open anything

   Count the packages and check the article numbers against your receipt. A PAX is five to twelve boxes, a METOD kitchen thirty or more, and the missing one is always the one you need halfway through. A crushed corner usually means a chipped panel.

2. 2

   Clear a floor space bigger than the finished piece

   You need the footprint of the unit plus a metre each side, and tall units are built lying down. Put a blanket or the flattened box underneath so the melamine is not scratched. Build in the room where the furniture will live: a finished PAX does not go through a door.

3. 3

   Sort the hardware into bowls and count it

   Empty every bag into bowls by type: cam locks, cam dowels, wooden dowels, screws by length, hinges. Count each against the parts list. IKEA packs spares of the small parts and none of the big ones; find out now.

4. 4

   Read the whole manual once before step 1

   Five minutes. Look for the pictures with a cross through them, which show the part the wrong way round, and note which panels have the finished edge to the front. Half the jobs we undo went wrong at step 3 and were noticed at step 20.

5. 5

   Identify panels by their holes, not their size

   Side panels of a PAX or a BILLY look identical, but one is left and one is right: shelf-pin holes face inwards, cam holes face the back. Lay every panel out as in the exploded drawing before you start.

6. 6

   Set the drill driver to its lowest torque

   On full torque a driver strips a cam housing or pulls a screw through 16 mm chipboard. Clutch on 1 or 2, and finish every screw by hand. Never use the driver on cam locks: a quarter turn with a screwdriver is all they need.

7. 7

   Dowels first, cam dowels second, then lock

   Tap the wooden dowels in with the mallet until they stop. Screw the metal cam dowels in by hand until the collar sits on the panel; if one goes in crooked, back it out. Push the panels together, then turn each cam a quarter turn until it bites.

8. 8

   Leave everything a quarter turn loose until the carcass is complete

   A carcass with every cam locked before the last panel goes on will not accept the last panel. Keep the cams at half tension until top, bottom and both sides are on, square it, then tighten in the manual's order.

9. 9

   Measure the diagonals before fixing the back panel

   Measure corner to corner both ways. The two figures should match within 2 mm; if not, push the long diagonal gently until they do. Only then nail the hardboard back on. Nailed on crooked, no hinge adjustment will ever line the doors up.

10. 10

    Check the ceiling height before building a tall frame on its back

    A 236 cm PAX frame built lying down has to be tipped up, and its diagonal is about 243 cm. Under a 240 cm ceiling, common in 1980s flats in Torrevieja and Benidorm, the corner punches the plaster or the frame racks. Under 245 cm, assemble it standing.

11. 11

    Raise tall units with two people and level them first

    Lift a frame by the sides, never by the top panel. Once it stands, put the level on top and on the side and pack the low side with plastic wedges. A unit leaning forward 5 mm at the top shows as doors that swing open.

12. 12

    Anchor it to the wall before fitting doors or drawers

    Every IKEA chest, bookcase and wardrobe ships with a wall anchor. Fit it with a plug suited to the wall, not the screw in the bag, which is for timber: Fischer SX or DuoPower in brick, Duotec or a spring toggle in plasterboard. Plugs per wall type are in how to anchor furniture to the wall.

13. 13

    Fit runners and hinges with the unit standing, then adjust

    Runners are handed, marked L and R. Fit them upright and test each drawer. Hinges have three screws: sideways, in and out, up and down. Hang all the doors loosely, then adjust them together, judging the gaps from two metres away.

14. 14

    Final tightening in the manual's sequence

    Give every cam its final quarter turn and every screw its last half turn by hand. Push the unit at the top corner: it should not rack. Open every door and drawer twice. Tape the spare hardware and the manual inside the unit.

15. 15

    Know when to stop and get help

    A PAX with sliding doors needs two people and four to six hours; a METOD kitchen is two full days before the worktop; a stripped cam in a side panel means a new panel or a glued dowel repair. At midnight with a part fitted backwards, stop, photograph it and send it to us.

How long IKEA furniture assembly really takes

IKEA does not print assembly times, and forum figures come from people who have built the same item four times. These are realistic times for a first-timer with the right tools, with our fixed prices alongside.

The three mistakes that ruin a PAX, and the smaller ones that waste a day

The damage to a PAX comes from three places. First, building the 236 cm frame flat in a room where it cannot be tipped upright: the corner meets the ceiling, the frame racks and a cam pulls out of the side panel. Second, nailing the back on before squaring the frame: the doors sit 5 mm out at the top and no hinge adjustment fixes it, because the box is a parallelogram. Third, hanging the doors before the frame is levelled and anchored: the weight tips it forward and the owner tightens the hinges until the screws strip the chipboard. None of this is about skill, only order: measure the ceiling, square before the back, level and anchor before the doors.

• Driver on full torque. Stripped cams and screws through the panel. Lowest clutch, last half turn by hand.
• Panel the wrong way round. Lay the panels out as in the drawing before the first dowel goes in.

When to call a fitter instead

Some jobs are worth paying for, not because they are hard but because they need two people, a hammer drill and a spare afternoon: a PAX with sliding doors, a METOD kitchen, a houseful of furniture for a new flat, or a unit that has already gone wrong. We assemble, level and anchor everything.

At Manitas Costa assembly costs 30-40 € an hour with a one-hour minimum, or a fixed price per item: a 2-door PAX wardrobe 70-110 €, an ottoman bed 60-90 €, a KALLAX or BILLY unit 35-60 €, a METOD kitchen of 6-8 units 350-600 €. Send the list of items or a photo of the boxes by WhatsApp for a fixed price and a day, 8:00 to 21:00, in Valencia, Alicante and along the Costa Blanca. Six months written guarantee on the assembly. Areas on furniture assembly, prices with worked examples on furniture assembly prices.

Flat-pack on the coast: damp, tiles and plasterboard

Chipboard and the coast do not get on. A box left in a garage through a damp winter in Torrevieja or Dénia swells at the edges, and a panel 1 mm thicker than designed will not take its cam dowels. Store boxes flat, indoors, and build within a few weeks of delivery.

New-build flats in Orihuela Costa, Benidorm and Valencia have plasterboard partitions: find the metal studs with a detector every 40 or 60 cm and screw into them, or use a spring toggle, never a plain nylon plug. Older flats have 4 cm hollow brick, which breaks under full hammer action; a DuoPower plug and gentle drilling.

In a holiday let the furniture gets ten times the use and the humidity swings every time the place is shut up. Check the cams and the anchor each season, and if a sliding wardrobe door sticks, fix a sliding wardrobe door explains the rollers and the adjustment.