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Comment by lqet | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally, I have moved multiple times (2-4 times) with IKEA furniture, including one of those classic IKEA swinging chairs (20 years old), a Billy (13 years old), an Expedit (8 years old), a desk (13 years old) and a bed (7 years old). Everything was completely disassembled each time, and is still looking great. You just have to be careful. I sold the bed for 50 EUR a year ago, which required yet another disassembly.

> fasteners simply pull themselves out of the soft particle board, because the board itself is weaker than the fastener

This is true for most furniture. High-quality solid wood is also weaker than a metal fastener.

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Whoa, you disassembled it between moves and it survived? I've never been able to do that without the particleboard getting too messed up to accept the screws.

Some IKEA items have a metal insert + machine screws and slots for the back rather than nailing, so those can be easily disassembled and reassembled without issue. IMO, if IKEA was serious about sustainability they would make them all like that. I think they are more looking for PR and know that the same reasons that keep people from moving the items will keep them from returning them as well.

I do have a couple of short shelves that I got used and moved 3-4 times that look to be screwed into the material (my memory isn't that great :/) and I'm guessing at one point had a nailed on back. I'm fairly sure it just worked for me to disassemble and reassemble without change and they are somehow stable without any cross bracing. The previous owner might have changed the screws.

I also have a pair of IKEA chairs that were quite unstable when I got them used and the issue turned out to be that the order of tightening screws made a huge difference. Luckily it was new enough that it was easy to find the manual on IKEA's site or I would never have figured it out. I think a number of items have tricks like that where you need to exactly follow the instructions or it doesn't work.

Assembling a Billy involves nailing a MDF backboard to the fiberboard panels. I'm rather skeptical about the possibility of reassembling anything from the Billy line with any success.

You don't reuse the nail holes ;) Just offset by a few inches/cm.

The Billy I have has slots at the back where you can slide in the fiberboard panels. Only one nail is necessary to hold it in place. If that isn't the case, you can offset the nail positions by 2 cm. If the nail is broken, they can cheaply be replaced. Nailed MDF backboards are completely standard even for very expensive furniture. Removing the nails is trivial given the right tool, but can also very easily be done with a kitchen knife.

How do you remove them?? I have a Pax where I nailed the backplane inside out (the veneered side faces the wall, the raw face is what you see when opening the door)

I tried removing the nails and it’s impossible. They’re very very very snug. Even punching the backplane out just breaks it and leaves the nails in place with a little piece of board around them. There isn’t enough space between the nail head and the board to slide a kitchen knife and when there is, is breaks the knive’s edge rather than moving the nail.

Very curious indeed to know what your method is.

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