If you put together your own IKEA kitchen please chime in.

[Walnutpie]

Did you use a brad nailer? If so, which size did you use please?

How did the assembly go? Any tips, tricks, advice gratefully received.

I've done it.

It was not too hard but I reckon it took about 3 times longer than I thought. Assembling the carcasses was really time consuming.

Just googled brad nailer and seen that it's a nail gun. We don't own a nail gun but managed to assemble ours fine.

We'll just pop this over to Property/DIY for the OP.

Thanks Becca.

Ok, how long did it take to assemble a unit? Not the first one, maybe not the second, but once you got the hang of it?

Did fitting take less time than assembling?

No brad nailers. Why would you need one? You screw the things together with fittings. They take between five and ten minutes to put together once you have the knack. Fitting doors takes a bit longer. Doesn't take long to get them attached to walls and each other but levelling out takes a while too. Obviously the work surface and plinths require cutting and take a bit longer again. Our utility room took us a couple of days, but the kitchen had an inset sink and hob and built in fridge and oven, as well as wrap around counters and took over a week to do. Then the wall cupboards took another day along with the built in extractor fan. Only special equipment you need is a good drill for the holes in the wall to screw into and a proper router for the worktop (or a decent jigsaw and electric plane) but if you aren't a competent and experienced DIYer, get someone else to do it for you.

I've assembled literally dozens of Ikea kitchens units over the years (Faktum and Metod). I don't think I can do a single unit in less than 15 minutes. I've never used a nail gun. I'd really recommend using the hanging rail which makes lining them all up a lot easier - you just hook them into place and then adjust the feet so that they reach the floor. Spend some time making sure that you get the rail at the right height and completely level and it will save you a lot of fiddling about further down the line.

The hanging rail sounds awesome! I slightly regretted not waiting for Metod, the rails look like they simplify things enormously, and the cabinets are so lovely. But there was that huge sale on Faktum just before they discontinued it and I was so short on budget! The ikea electric screwdriver speeds things up enormously too and you can't overtighten with it, unlike using a drill driver (bitter experience).

Oh this is good, Thankyou everyone!

IKEA electric screwdriver.
IKEA hanging rail.

Very useful, very encouraging.

We did this some time ago. Drawers take much, much longer than plain units. The hardest bit that we did ourselves was drilling into the front of the doors to attach the handles. Well, it wasn't difficult but it felt risky. We assembled the units and fitted them ourselves, and then got a joiner for half a day to fit the worktops and cut holes for the sink and hob.

I want deep pan drawers, instead of the chaotic deep cupboards I currently have, which I now realise are fairly ridiculous..the years I've spent, peering into their dark recesses, thinking 'I know it's in there somewhere..'

But, yeah, I'm apprehensive about fitting drawers nicely so that they run smoothly. But will feel super chuffed if (when) we manage it.

Worktop cutting will be handed over to a joiner, I think. That seems to me, with our current level of DIY 'skills'.

I'm a bit fed up to hear that Metod isn't as good as the previous system. I can imagine that IKEA might be keeping their kitchens a good price but making them less long lasting.

DIY kitchens look fantastic, but much harder to coordinate and self install?

Dh amd his dad built all out units...said they were easy to put together.
Looks ace too!

The drawers take longer to put together but they're not difficult. I'm sure you'll manage. I'm not sure there is a difference in quality between Metod and Faktum - I do wish they'd retained the 30/50cm widths though.

Not doing it ourselves but IKEA's fitters are doing mine as we speak!

They set up each cabinet on two sawhorses rather than on the ground. All the wall units were assembled and mounted in two days, but it is taking them another two days to assemble all the drawers - we have a lot of drawers....

Ok, so I looked up 'sawhorse' which is a workbench! ( learning curve fairly steep, as you see..)

Is using a sawhorse so they don't get backache from working on the floor? Or..?

very where are they doing this? In your current kitchen? Have your old units already gone?

We have just fitted an Ikea kitchen ourselves and it was a doddle. Definitely get the hanging rails as someone else has said. There's a dinky little stencil thing you can buy for lining up the screw holes for your handles which is another thing that makes life much easier. We are very pleased with the quality overall which compares very favourably to our previous B&Q Cooke and Lewis kitchen (which was an arse to fit). Good luck!

Dinky little stencil thing for handle fitting, added to list of helpful tips.

Thank you! A doddle, you say! I love it!

Sorry to be a pain but ours was a nightmare. We have a pretty huge kitchen with extra tall wall units. Our joiner was ready to walk after about a week!
Then we discovered about a third of the stuff was missing and that's why the never ending ikea jigsaw was taking so long.
They sometimes have deals on free fitting, go for it!

Deal on free fitting would be amazing. How does that work?!

Sorry your fitting was traumatic, Purple... I can well imagine exhaudtion, chaos and frayed tempers, that is unfortunately Definitely not outside my experience...

Our old kitchen was ripped out as part of the extension return we are doing. All the carcass assembly was done in our big extension room, which was empty for the refurbishment. Sawhorses are there to save backache, yes. Even ourv pro fitters were taking about 10 mins to assemble the basic box bit. A big space to work in is incredibly helpful - there is so much stuff that tracking down bits is a nightmare if you aren't ruthlessly organised and tidy away all the packaging after each unit.

Our fitters have worked as follows:
Hang rails on wall
Build one carcass, hang on rail and sort out feet
Build neighbouring carcass,hang on wall etc
Check units level
Continue to end of run, sort out end panel
Fit built in fridge and oven
Go back to first unit and sort out drawers, then fit drawers for other units.
Go back and sort out doors for each unit.

Worktops templates but not fitted yet; sink and hob will be done once the worktops are ready.

I built about 10 80cm full height cupboards myself and they probably took me about 15mins when I had the routine right.

I opened all the packets first and stored the components by type. Employed small OCD child to sort all screws by type. Electric screwdriver was a godsend.

Use a right angle or something to make sure your box is straight before nailing. I did some on their side and they weren't perfect.

I did years ago, I believe they have improved since then. It definitely gets quicker the more you do.

Assembled our ikea kitchen (faktum not metod) ourselves. A carcass ended up taking about 10 minutes to do, we were fortunate that we had plenty of space to assemble. No nail guns required.

Drawers are very simple to assemble, runners go in pre-drilled holes so not really much to get wrong.

Agree with others that putting on the handles felt like the riskiest part of it all. I made my own template for doing it.

I think there are some in progress pics in this album www.flickr.com/photos/ebygomm/sets/72157633377194013/

Tiz those photos are absolutely Wow! Did you plaster the ceiling yourself?! Whaaat?

You did an amazing job.

Yes, did all the plastering - quite enjoyed it.

Kitchen now seems like a walk in the park compared to the bathroom which is current project...