Flat-pack furniture saves money at the register and charges it back in time: a dresser can arrive as dozens of panels, a bag of cam locks and dowels, and a booklet with no words in it. Across Gwinnett County the boxes pile up in the same places — a new house in Lawrenceville the week of the closing, a nursery in Grayson with a due date coming, a home office in Peachtree Corners that has been running off a folding table. In experienced hands, a stack like that is an afternoon, not a weekend.
What gets built
Beds come first: platform beds, bunk beds, loft beds over a desk, and the headboard that has to bolt to a frame from a different store. Then dressers, wardrobes, bookcases, and media cabinets; desks, standing desks, and office chairs; patio sets and grills for the deck; and exercise equipment, where a treadmill or a home gym arrives heavy enough that two people move it. Cribs and changing tables are built exactly to their instructions, with every bolt the maker supplied and none swapped for something from the junk drawer.
Square, tight, and sliding the way it should
Good assembly starts with the parts list: everything counted and laid out before the first screw, so a missing piece becomes a call to the maker that day instead of a half-built dresser for a week. Particleboard strips if a screw is driven too hard, so cam locks and screws are snugged by hand. The frame is squared before the thin back panel goes on, because the back locks in whatever shape the frame is in. Drawers get their runners checked until they glide, and cabinet doors get a turn of the hinge adjustment screws until the gaps line up.
Anchored, especially in a house with children
Tall dressers, bookcases, and TV stands can tip forward when a drawer is pulled or a child climbs, and a strap screwed into a wall stud is what stops it. Most dressers and tall bookcases now come with an anti-tip kit in the box; it only does its job once it is fastened to framing rather than to bare drywall. Every tall piece gets its strap, and the walk-through notes where the studs are on the walls the furniture is headed for.
Moving day and the home office
Move-in week is the busiest stretch for assembly in Suwanee, Lawrenceville, and Snellville, when a whole house of furniture arrives at once and the beds need to be standing by bedtime. Home offices are the other steady call, from converted guest rooms in Duluth to townhomes in Peachtree Corners, where a desk, a chair, and a bookcase go up together with the monitor arm and the cable tray. Most visits pair assembly with TV mounting or curtain rods while the tools are out, and the empty boxes are broken down and stacked for recycling day. The quote comes from a visit at a flat $35 dispatch fee.