IKEA and flat-pack assembly costs in London: what each item really costs

Flat-pack assembly is priced two ways in London, and the difference matters more than the headline rate. Per-item pricing suits a known delivery with instructions in the box. Hourly pricing suits second-hand furniture, missing instructions and half-finished builds someone else started.

This guide sets out both, using the same figures published on every London area page in this silo, and explains the access costs that genuinely move a quote in a city where parking is often harder than the build.

A bookcase or cube storage unit starts at £40, a chest of drawers at £45, a bed frame at £55, a hinged two or three-door wardrobe at £75, and a modular wardrobe run at £120 per 100cm frame. An ottoman or drawer storage bed starts at £85 because the gas struts and drawer alignment take real time.

Ranges exist because a 'wardrobe' can be a 100cm hinged box or a 300cm sliding run with an interior fit-out. The quote we send names the unit and the price for that unit, not a band.

Batching is where the money is. Each additional item drops in price because you pay for one set-up, one permit and one carry rather than three separate visits. A bedroom of four items costs measurably less than the same four items across three appointments.

At £55 an hour with a one-hour minimum, hourly pricing is cheaper and fairer for anything unpredictable: marketplace furniture with no instructions, packs missing fittings, or a build a previous fitter abandoned halfway.

We say which model applies before you book, and we do not switch from per-item to hourly on the day. If the boxes turn out to be different from the list, we tell you before we start and you decide.

A half day is £190 and covers roughly four hours of build — a bedroom's worth of furniture, or a wardrobe run and its interior. A full day is £340 and covers a whole-flat handover: wardrobes, beds, living room and office.

The estimator on every area page converts an item list into build minutes, then shows which tier the visit lands in. It is the same maths our office uses to size the slot, so the band you see is the band you are quoted.

Parking is first. A controlled zone with no suspendable bay means a permit or a meter session on every visit. We buy it, and it is shown as its own line rather than buried in the labour rate.

Access is second. A fourth-floor walk-up with a half-landing turn adds real minutes to every two-metre box, and a booked goods lift in a managed block adds a delivery window we have to hit. Both are planned before the day.

Disposal is third, and it is where cheap quotes hide. Taking flattened cardboard, polystyrene and an old wardrobe away is licensed waste-carrier work. Ours is included for packaging; furniture removal is quoted alongside.

Anchoring hardware, wall plugs, through-fixings and anti-tip straps come out of the van and are inside the price. VAT is inside the price. Permits are inside the price.

Manufacturer spare parts are the one exception: a missing cam lock or a damaged panel is ordered at cost with the receipt attached, and we return to finish without charging the labour twice.