How long does a bed take to assemble?

Retailers quote build times from a factory bench with two people and no stairs. A real bedroom has a chimney breast, a radiator, a carpet that is not flat and a door narrower than the base you are carrying through it.

These are the timings we actually schedule against in London, taken from job sheets rather than instruction leaflets — and the four conditions that reliably push a build past them.

A single or double frame is about 55 minutes: legs and rails, the centre support and its foot, slats, headboard, then a torque pass in sequence. A king or super-king is closer to 80 minutes because there are two centre legs to level and a much larger frame to hold square while the slats drop in.

An upholstered frame is around 90 minutes. The panels are heavy, the bolt covers have to come off and go back on cleanly, and the fabric will show a scuff from a dropped spanner forever.

An ottoman with a single gas strut is around 100 minutes; a double-strut or side-lift base is closer to 130. The struts go on last and have to be balanced, otherwise the lid either sinks onto the mattress or fights you every time it opens.

A standard bunk is around 130 minutes and a cabin or mid sleeper 150, because the safety checks are part of the build rather than an inspection at the end. A high sleeper with a desk or futon underneath is up to three hours. A cot is around an hour; a cot-bed conversion 45 minutes.

Access is first. A boxed divan base or a king headboard up a winder stair with a half-landing turn adds real minutes before a single bolt is turned, and occasionally means the frame has to be part-built on the landing.

Floors are second. Period floorboards and thick underlay mean the centre support foot has to be packed, or the finished bed rocks. Levelling properly costs ten minutes; not doing it costs a callback.

Missing hardware is third. A short-shipped pack stops an amateur build dead. We carry bolts, cams, barrel nuts, lock washers and common slat holders, so most packs still finish the same visit.

Second-hand frames are fourth. A frame that has already been moved twice has stretched holes, missing dowels and no instructions, which is why those builds are charged hourly rather than per bed.

Each additional bed in the same visit costs less and takes less time per bed: one carry, one permit, one set-up and one clean-up. A family fitting out two children's rooms saves noticeably against two separate appointments.

The estimator on every area page converts a bed list into build minutes and shows the slot it needs, which is the same maths our office uses to size the booking.

Mattress delivery windows slip; assembly slots do not. Where the mattress arrives in the morning, an afternoon or evening bed slot is the safe sequence, and it is the reason we hold same-day slots at all.

If the old bed is still standing, book its take-down into the same visit. Stripping, bagging the fixings and stacking the parts is around 40 minutes, and it is far cheaper than a second call-out.

Creaking is almost never a broken bed. It is a centre rail that is not seated, a support leg that does not reach the floor, slats sitting loose in their holders, or bolts tightened one side at a time so the frame locked out of square.

The fix is procedural: build loose, square the frame, seat the centre support on the floor, then torque in sequence and re-check with the slats in. Ten minutes at the end of the build is the difference between silence and a month of noise.

Work backwards from the moment you want to sleep in it. Old bed stripped and bagged: 40 minutes. Boxes carried in and unpacked, parts counted against the manifest: 15 minutes. The build itself: 55 minutes for a double, up to three hours for a high sleeper with a desk. Packaging flattened and taken away: 10 minutes.

That is why a two-bed booking is normally a half-day slot rather than two hours, and why we ask which floor the bedroom is on when the booking is taken. The estimator on every borough and area page adds the same minutes we schedule against, so the slot you see is the slot we hold.

If a mattress is landing the same day, aim for the assembly slot to start at least two hours after the delivery window opens. Beds are built to the bedroom, not to the courier.

A single or double frame is a one-person build. A super-king frame, an ottoman base above 4ft6, a bunk or any upper-floor carry of a boxed divan is quicker and safer with two, and often costs less overall because the slot is shorter.

The rule we use: if the heaviest single part cannot be lifted waist-high by one person without twisting, it is a two-person job. Upholstered king headboards, ottoman lift frames and solid-oak side rails almost always qualify.

Most flat-pack beds ship with an Allen key that is too short to torque anything properly. A ratchet with hex bits, a rubber mallet, a spirit level and a cordless driver with a clutch set low turn a three-hour struggle into a one-hour build.

The parts that go missing most often are barrel nuts, slat holders, centre-support feet and the lock washers under the rail bolts. We carry all four, plus common cam locks and dowels, which is why a short-shipped pack usually still finishes the same visit rather than waiting a fortnight for the retailer.

A double bed generates roughly two cubic metres of cardboard and polystyrene. We flatten it and take it away as part of the visit, which keeps the hallway clear and the flat's bin store usable.

The old frame can be dismantled, stacked and left for your own collection, or removed under our licensed waste service. Mattresses need separate handling — most London councils charge for bulky collection and will not take one at kerbside without a booking.